Canada has designed 31 minerals as critical – essential to our green digital economy, but whose supply is threatened. From copper to cesium they are in batteries; every electronic device, computer, and EV; permanent magnets; optical instruments; wiring; bearings; run-of river dams, wind farms, and solar arrays; aerospace alloys; catalytic converters & carbon dioxide scrubbers; and medical equipment. Our modern world simply does not exist without them.

As the world strives to electrify demand for critical minerals is skyrocketing. Electric vehicles don’t burn fossil fuels, but they require an average of 200 kilograms of critical minerals each – six times that required to build an internal combustion vehicle. It’s a theme repeated across numerous fields.

As a result, from 2017 – 2022 demand for lithium tripled, demand for cobalt rose 70 per cent, for nickel 40 per cent. The International Energy Agency predicts overall demand for critical minerals will more than triple by 2030 if the world continues to pursue the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

This is leading to a shortage of many minerals as miners struggle to keep up with demand for responsibly-secured supplies – and to get through regulatory processes that can drag on for years.

Join us 7 p.m. May 22 for a conversation about critical minerals with an outstanding panel of experts working in this field every day.