Ottawa is counting on copper to become a nation builder-and Canada has to play a catch-up

List of “Nation-Building” projects by Ottawa Involved Development of two copper mines – One of the world’s most important natural resources remains as a global demand for sources and supply challenges.

Such projects should be “the autonomy of Canada, our flexibility and our safety. It should have a clear advantage for Canadian people,” said Prime Minister Mark Carney during Thursday’s announcement.

Enter the copper, the third most widely used metal in the world and a corrugated for everything. Regulatory approval for the federal government is recommending Mcilvenna Bay Forran Coupper Mine Project In Suscachewan, and a detail Northwestern BC

Important minerals are used to manufacture electric vehicles and other green energy products. But demand is Sky touch Amidst the global bounce of data centers, Which house hardware This is artificial intelligence.

Canada is “a major mining power, and copper is one of the most important natural resources of this century,” said Vancouver-based writer Vince Besar. Power Metal: The race of resources that will shape the future.

“All our digital gadgets require electricity. How do electricity travel? How does it get from a dam or solar energy farm to your house? It travels on copper,” he said.

Canada is home to copper mines, refineries and a smelter. According to experts talking with CBC News, the country has fallen behind the production and export in the last decade, and even quick projects may be very short.

A small piece of pie

The metal is one of the pieces of chess caught in the US-China trade war crossfire. While copper prices have been rising in the last several years, they spikes and are high. Earlier in this summer When the Trump administration threatened a tariff on raw copper.

Eventually, it put one instead 50 percent levy Countries such as half-pillar copper products, causing the worst, but the Chinese refiner Roughly The world’s copper-soultting capacity.

At least one federal officer has pointed to the Chinese dominance of the copper market as Ottawa is trying to accelerate its metal production.

Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson says Canada has a role to play “as a democratic country” in the production of copper, and accuses Beijing of manipulating copper prices.

Hodgson said on CBC radio on Thursday, “We have the opportunity to remove cards from the hands of autocats and put those cards in Canada’s hands,”

Although China has a “Struggold” on rare-Earth minerals, it does not have a lot of commanding “as a position with copper, despite its strength in processing and refinement according to Bejar.

“This is another reason that I think it makes sense to try to strengthen its hand for Canada, because, we have got copper, we have found copper mines. We also have copper refineries,” he said.

Supply challenges

However, Canada is a relatively small piece of global copper puzzle, according to Dennis da Silva, a senior portfolio manager of Middlefield, is just two percent of global production, analyzing metals and mining areas.

“Globally, most of the growth that can enter copper place, in fact, is outside Canada,” Da Silva said, the federal government has targeted “perhaps only relevant projects for Canada that can be created.”

Recently, many Canadian mining company has preferred copper on other items. Barrical mining, earlier known as Barrical Gold, recently sold his last gold mine in Canada for $ 1.1 billion as it converts its attention into its copper portfolio.

The push was headed by Mark Bristo, CEO of Barrick, who Earlier this year was estimated About 30 percent of the company’s production will be copper – almost equal to the growth that expects its gold portfolio.

Meanwhile, it is reported that UK mining multinational Anglo American Plan to receive The Canadian mining company ripped the tech resources for its copper operations earlier this week through the industry.

The deal under shareholder and regulatory approval will be one of the largest mining merger in the history of the sector, and according to DA Silva, “exposes the shortage of shovel-taire projects” in the supply-colored copper area “.

Production has declined significantly

Copper production in Canada has been “significantly reduced significantly” in the last few decades, according to Fotini Catswlis, Vice President of Economic Affairs in Canada’s Mining Association and Vice President of Climate Change.

Between 2014 and 2023, it fell More than 22 percentNatural resources according to Canadian data. Statistics Canada says that in the same period, copper exports have declined by about 24 percent.

“We have definitely lost our legs in our global rankings on copper,” said Catswlis. “Hopefully, these projects are a good start in reversing that trend.”

The US produces about five percent of global copper production, while Chile is the world’s largest producer at 30 percent. According to Da Silva, Canada may potentially produce seven to eight percent in the next 20 years.

But Canada would “need to” start placing these things on the drawing board, which was probably five years ago to properly match the expectations for the demand of five years ago. “

“You can imagine how long it takes to find it, prove it, hold economics right, and then eventually make it, turn on the switch and bring it into production.”