Electric vehicles need bastnaesite to be manufactured. And Canada wants to become the new leader of supplying it.
What’s happening:
- The Canadian government has entered into a new partnership with research and technology company the Saskatchewan Research Council to fund the processing and production of the mineral bastnaesite
The big idea:
- Bastnaesite is a mineral that contains rare earth elements that are essential for the manufacturing and production of electric vehicles
- The new funding from the Canadian government for the Saskatchewan Research Council will go towards advancing their leading edge rare earth processing facility and expanding their capabilities to turn bastnaesite into magnets that can be used in electric vehicles
Why it matters:
- China has recently been limiting the exploration of rare earths and critical minerals, which has led to a push from North American governments to find domestic sources of metals that are essential to the global energy transition
By the numbers:
- The Canadian government will provide $16M CAD in funding to the Saskatchewan Research Council as part of the new project
- 2,000 tonnes of bastnaesite will be processed at the Saskatchewan Research Council’s rare earth facility, which is enough to produce magnets for approximately 62,000 new electric vehicles
Going deeper:
- Australian based mining company Vital Metals (ASX: VML) supplied the bastnaesite for the new project from their Canadian operations, which was originally expected to be sold to China prior to Vital Metals deciding to cancel the deal
- The Saskatchewan Research Council’s rare earth processing facility is one of the largest purpose built facilities for rare earths in North America and is expected to soon be fully operational for solvent extraction, metal smelting, mineral processing and geochemistry
The intrigue:
- Wall Street has also been taking notice of the growing importance of rare earth elements, with private company USA Rare Earth recently entering into a large SPAC transaction to go public on the Nasdaq
