Canada’s Atlantic provinces are gearing up for the critical minerals push by aligning policies with the speed of industry and tapping into green energy.
Due to their relatively small populations, governments in the Atlantic mining provinces can engage with the public and companies faster than peers. New Brunswick, for its part, plans a policy overhaul.
“Our Mining Act is going to go through a modernization process that will be very agile, environmentally responsible and predictable,” Neil Jacobson, Assistant Deputy Minister of with the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources said Monday on an Atlantic Canada panel at the London Metals Symposium. “Our permitting services need to be predictable. Investors and companies coming to our jurisdiction need to know exactly when they walk in, what they’re going to get, what to expect and when.”
Nation building projects
Jacobson spoke just weeks after the federal government included Northcliff Resources’ (TSX: NCF; US-OTC: NCFFF) Sisson tungsten project in New Brunswick on its shortlist of nation-building projects, underscoring the province’s place in the wider critical minerals landscape.
New Brunswick’s Mining Act changes are happening alongside a co-operation agreement with Ottawa to streamline Environmental Impact Assessment processes with the province – as well as a planned mineral strategy that counts predictability in permitting as one of its pillars.
Indigenous role
Another major pillar is the place of New Brunswick’s First Nations in mining. Indigenous peoples want a seat at the table – not just an industry job, Jacobson said.
“They want to be in the finance side, they want to be on the engineering side, and they want to be on the environmental side,” he said.
“We will launch and release that strategy in March” at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada’s annual conference, Jacobson said. “We’re excited about that.”
Faster permitting
Further south, Nova Scotia is cutting timelines by improving co-ordination, said Diane Webber, Director with the province’s Department of Natural Resources.
The department has created “faster, smarter permitting” through service standards to chop permit timelines in half, and its new NovaMINE portal allows proponents to check the status of their permits in one place.
“[And] we have our One Window process, which is when all the regulators are in one room, so that proponents are able to have all their questions answered, and they’re not running from department to department,” Webber said.
Newfoundland ranks high
Newfoundland and Labrador, by contrast, is more advanced in its interaction with the mining industry, and is Atlantic Canada’s biggest oil and gas and metals producer according to Canadian government figures. Last year the province was ranked eighth globally in the Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies by investment attractiveness, far ahead of New Brunswick, in 54th place, and Nova Scotia, in 79th.
“We are a…small population, but our government is accessible [and] industry can reach out at any time and within 24 hours somebody will be back in touch with you,” said panellist Paul Carter, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Assistant Deputy Minister of Mining and Mineral Development.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s government is keen to smooth the way for environmental processes and is developing guidelines with the federal government when projects have to go through both levels of assessment.
“Our priority will be to remain as a top 10 mining jurisdiction for the world and do what’s necessary to ensure that we are an attractive jurisdiction for investment,” Carter said.
Green, clean energy
Canada’s Atlantic provinces are also working to align with the green energy transition by adopting more forms of renewable energy.
As with mining, Newfoundland and Labrador leads the region in clean energy production. More than 90% of the province’s electricity output comes from renewable hydropower, and the huge Churchill Falls plant could be expanded in the coming years.
“Whoever has clean power also has a very competitive advantage, and particularly if you couple that with mineral resources,” Carter said. “Some of these are the key pillars of our approach to mineral development and critical minerals.”
Greening steel
Adding to Labrador’s environmental credentials is its abundance of high-purity iron ore which could eventually allow steelmakers to process it in direct reduced iron (DRI) plants using hydrogen instead of carbon. While still at an experimental stage, DRI could dramatically cut carbon emissions.
“This product only constitutes about 15% of the world’s supply of iron ore,” Carter said.
Among Labrador’s developing iron sites, Champion Iron’s (TSX, ASX: CIA) Kami high-purity ore project could be the next candidate for production, Carter added.
Halifaxes power goals
Nova Scotia, meanwhile, is embarking on an aggressive grid transformation towards its goal of reaching 80% clean power generation by 2030.
While Nova Scotia doesn’t have any mines producing critical metals for now, exploration is under way in the province for lithium, rare earths, tin and antimony. The province also lifted a ban on uranium development in March, though no companies have applied to explore for it.
“We’ve got critical minerals essential for the wind turbines, solar panels, batteries [and] EVs,” Webber said, adding that Dalhousie University’s battery innovation centre is the first of its kind in Canada for testing and producing batteries built with sustainable materials.
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