Summary

Critical minerals and metals are essential to Canada’s economic security and essential for electrification that can enable a net-zero emissions economy. By building critical mineral value chains, Canada can also help supply responsibly sourced products, mitigating the risk of global supply chain disruption.

The Critical Minerals and Metals in BC Mine Tailings and Waste Rock program is examining the potential for targeted legacy and operating mines in BC to host economic concentrations of minerals or metals that were previously not valuable or recoverable. Current work undertaken in Phase 1 is focused on collating and completing a high-level inventory of existing geological and geochemical data related to current and legacy sites across the province and linking it with key information such as infrastructure in a GIS database. To follow up on this work and take it from a desktop to a field study, this Project Concept would:

• Identify suitable mine tailings and waste rock facilities in BC to undertake lab and field-scale studies for critical minerals and metals to research geochemical concentrations.
• Collect new data to support the development of site investigation models.
• Add data to the GIS database developed in Phase 1 through collaboration with local mineral exploration companies and others.

For any past-producing mine that proves viable, it could also turn mining by-products from an environmental liability into an asset.