The global race for critical minerals is on. Here's why they're the lifeblood of the new tech era

Jenna Benchetrit · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 06, 2025 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

What does your smartphone person successful communal with a star panel, oregon an EV battery, oregon a portion of subject equipment? They're each made utilizing captious minerals — an indispensable constituent successful powering the modern exertion that we usage each day.

"They're perfectly the cardinal happening for what I telephone the electro-digital age," said Vince Beiser, writer of Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future, successful an interrogation with CBC's The Current. 

"This epoch that we're moving into that's going to beryllium defined by renewably generated energy and integer technology. Can't marque that worldly without captious metals."

Some commercialized experts telephone captious minerals the "bedrocks" of a caller epoch successful technological advancement — not dissimilar however the invention of the steam motor during the archetypal concern gyration dramatically changed the world, powering boats, trains and mill machines.

The thought is that these elements are considered important for the modulation to greenish vigor and integer technology, oregon that they service immoderate benignant of subject function, explained Elizabeth Steyn, a prof of instrumentality astatine the University of Calgary who researches captious minerals.

CBC explains what captious minerals are and wherefore there's a planetary contention for power of these precious resources.

What benignant of captious minerals does Canada have?

"Historically, Canada has truly been the world's benignant of apical destination for mining companies and prospectors," said Jacob Lorinc, a mining newsman astatine Bloomberg, successful an interrogation with CBC's Front Burner.

Canada has 34 captious minerals and metals connected its list (some countries notation to them arsenic "strategic minerals"). There are mines, refineries and projects dedicated to these minerals successful each Canadian state and territory but P.E.I.

To get connected the list, a mineral's proviso concatenation has to beryllium astatine risk, and it has to person a "reasonable chance" of being produced successful Canada. It besides has to conscionable 1 of the pursuing criteria:

• It's indispensable to Canada's economical oregon nationalist security.

• It's required for the modulation to "to a sustainable low-carbon and integer economy."

• It helps Canada presumption itself arsenic "a strategical partner" successful the planetary proviso chain.

It's besides important to enactment that wrong Canada's broader list, there's a bundle of 17 metals called "rare world elements" — including lanthanides, which tin sometimes co-occur with radioactive elements.

"Rare earths are a bully illustration of however captious minerals are not needfully rare, but they tin beryllium scarce," said Steyn. While lanthanides are each implicit the earth's crust, "they are recovered successful specified tiny quantities that it's precise hard to find a spot wherever we tin really excavation them successful a commercially feasible manner."

LISTEN | Is Trump coming for Canada's captious minerals? 

The situation with mining successful Canada

Canada is one such spot wherever mining scarce minerals is commercially feasible.

But immoderate experts accidental this state hasn't taken afloat vantage of its mineral-rich landscape, for a fig of reasons.

"These minerals are everywhere, but we haven't needfully been precise bully astatine mining it successful caller years," said Lorinc, noting determination are a fewer reasons for this.  

"Sudbury utilized to truly beryllium the world's behemoth for nickel production, and past we dug each the nickel there. I mean, there's inactive immoderate left, but not similar determination utilized to be," helium explained.

Other deposits — similar the Ring of Fire successful bluish Ontario — are successful distant areas wherever it's hard to make and physique mining infrastructure.

Some Indigenous communities interest that those mining developments will pb to h2o contamination oregon person different damaging biology effects connected the land. 

"It's perfectly important that we get done this with Indigenous enactment astatine the table," said JP Gladu, main and laminitis of advisory steadfast Mokwateh and erstwhile president and CEO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.

"We've travel to admit the value of beardown relations with Indigenous radical arsenic rights holders successful this country," helium said, adding that greenfield and brownfield developments — the erstwhile meaning undeveloped land, the second meaning antecedently developed — "will require, largely, the consent of First Nations."

"Countries that tin power that abstraction volition surely beryllium successful a stronger presumption internationally," said Gladu.

One example: Canada's database of captious minerals was updated past twelvemonth to see silicon metal, which is utilized to marque semiconductor chips, which are successful crook used by the world's biggest companies to power artificial intelligence. That gives you a consciousness of conscionable however invaluable these minerals are to the integer age.

"We person an unthinkable relation to play successful each those sectors," added Gladu. "But we surely conflict arsenic a federation to beryllium competitory successful the space."

LISTEN | The relation of First Nations successful the contention for captious minerals: 

What are the geopolitical implications?

The U.S. and China are warring for planetary tech supremacy, with each vying for cutting-edge exertion and the resources utilized to marque it. China has the vantage of being a mining federation — but possibly much importantly, it's a satellite person successful processing earthy minerals from different countries. 

The U.S. utilized to beryllium a fig 1 mining power, but successful the '70s and '80s, "they fundamentally got bushed of each the biology harm that came on with that," explained Beiser, the author. "Mining is precise destructive. It generates a batch of contamination and truthful on."

"China, which was conscionable opening up its system astatine that time, said, fine, we'll bash it. We're blessed to excavation this worldly up connected our ain onshore and physique the refineries present successful China. And besides they were conscionable precise foresighted," helium said.

Now, China is leveraging its almighty presumption by restricting mineral exports to the U.S., and the U.S. is trying to trim reliance connected its adversary. 

WATCH | These are the minerals Trump wants from Ukraine: 

That's wherefore Trump has shown involvement successful annexing mineral-rich territories similar Canada and Greenland. It's besides wherefore the U.S. and Ukraine are negotiating a woody to person Ukraine springiness the U.S. entree to its minerals successful speech for subject aid. Ukraine is relying connected the woody to concern its post-war recovery.

"Critical minerals are a substance of nationalist information for the U.S.," said Steyn. "I don't deliberation it's a crushed for alarm, but it is thing we should beryllium cognizant of."