Five years for Allkem's permit to be exact. But did you know...

Five years for Allkem's permit to be exact. But did you know that the James Bay project is right on the perimeter of the Cree Nation of Eastmain community which has prime hunting and fishing grounds. It meant that Allkem had to consider the wishes of the local indigenous tribes and ensure that they were satisfied that the mine would not encroach on their land. This is not such an issue for PMT or WR1 as neither project is in a key area as marked on the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, which is a treaty negotiated with local indigenous tribes to protect their best hunting and fishing grounds. The strategic focus on essential minerals such as lithium has also changed significantly in the past 12 months, both federally and for Quebec.

Quebec has now announced its ‘2030 Plan for a Green Economy’ targeting a reduction in carbon emissions as well as its ‘Plan for Development of Critical and Strategic Minerals (2020-2025)’ which includes commitments to share financial risk and plans to improve infrastructure for projects in Northern Quebec.

The Canadian Federal Government has now announced their Critical Minerals strategy and assigned CAD4.2 billion to it from the budget. Part of the strategy provides enormous investment and taxation incentives to essential mineral explorers. The federal and state governments are also keen to improve permitting and ensure that supply chains are well-funded and running smoothly.

"Well-functioning supply chains are necessary for the overall economy, and the budget envisions massive spending to keep roads open and goods moving.For instance, Transport Canada would receive $603.2 million over the next five years, including $450 million to help ease the movement of goods across Canada’s transportation networks.That pledge would come on top of $4.2 billion that has been allocated to the National Trade Corridors Fund since 2017, which will be renamed to reflect a new focus on supply chains.An additional $136.3 million will go to developing industry-driven solutions to use data to make our supply chains more efficient."