https://www.innovationnewsnetwork.com/building-potential-quebecs-critical-and-strategic-minerals/32316/
Building on the potential of Québec’s critical and strategic mineralsWhat potential does Québec have to provide the minerals needed for the future?
The mining sector in Québec has a lot of potential due to its great variety of critical and strategic minerals, its best practices, but also its people. Québec’s mining workforce is extremely qualified and has the will to make Québec a strong leader in the industry.
The mining sector in Québec is well known for its gold and iron ore, but now shows great potential in critical minerals, including lithium, nickel, niobium, graphite, rare earths, and copper. We are also convinced the Labrador Trough holds a key resource for the future, high-purity iron ore. These minerals are necessary for the growing battery sector and for the decarbonisation of activities.
What measures are in place to support the growth of Québec’s mining sector to help meet the demand for critical and strategic minerals? It is well known that Québec has rich deposits of the critical and strategic minerals needed for the energy transition. The government has adopted ‘The Québec Plan for the Development of Critical and Strategic Minerals (CSM) 2020-2025’. This plan supports the mining companies in the province extracting or working on extracting critical minerals on different levels: financial, research and development, promotion, etc.
The Québec government is eager to position its mining industry on the map as a responsible source of critical minerals and offers several tax incentives and measures to support exploration activities, which include the deduction of exploration and development expenses. The same goes for the Federal government, with the flow-through shares regime and the tax credit for resources.
There is no doubt that Québec’s mining industry can play a leading role in the energy transition, and these measures are crucial to draw investors’ attention to develop new mining projects in the province to meet the demand for CSM.
The government understands that we cannot look at the development of these mines as we do for iron ore or gold, as it is a totally different business model. Hence, the development of its battery strategy to incentivise battery manufacturers or components manufacturers to build their plants in Québec. This way, they can secure the demand for critical and strategic minerals.
