Source: Government of Canada News (2)
Dr. Brendan Hanley, Member of Parliament for the Yukon, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, highlighted an important announcement of up to $40 million in funding, pending final due diligence from Natural Resources Canada, for critical minerals infrastructure developments in the Yukon. This funding would be provided through the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund (CMIF)
September 20, 2024 Whitehorse, Yukon Natural Resources Canada
Investments in critical minerals infrastructure are essential to enable Canada to seize the generational opportunity of a low-carbon economy and capitalize on our rich mineral resources. Canada is well positioned to be a global leader and first-class producer of a wide variety of critical minerals that are essential to power the clean economy, and, in turn, create good jobs and support economic opportunities across critical mineral value chains — from upstream exploration and extraction to downstream processing, manufacturing and recycling.
Today, Dr. Brendan Hanley, Member of Parliament for the Yukon, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, highlighted an important announcement of up to $40 million in funding, pending final due diligence from Natural Resources Canada, for critical minerals infrastructure developments in the Yukon. This funding would be provided through the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund (CMIF)
The Government of Yukon is seeking to undertake pre-feasibility activities to advance a 765-kilometre, high-voltage transmission line network that would connect the Yukon electrical grid to the North American grid in B.C. This regional project has proposed energy infrastructure located in two priority regions for critical minerals development — Yukon’s Cassiar and Tanana regions, and B.C.’s Golden Triangle. The transmission line could support projects producing critical minerals such as cobalt, copper, molybdenum, nickel, platinum group metals, tungsten and zinc in the Yukon and northern B.C.
The Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund is a key program under the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy to address infrastructure gaps and enable sustainable critical minerals production and connect resources to markets through various clean energy, electrification and transportation infrastructure projects. Future funding decisions for projects under the CMIF to further critical minerals infrastructure development are also expected in the coming months.
This project is the result of close collaboration under the Yukon Regional Energy and Resource Tables and is key to facilitating critical minerals development in the Yukon.
Critical minerals are essential components in products used for clean energy technologies such as electric vehicles, electrical transmission lines and batteries. The Yukon’s mining sectors provide many of the building blocks of clean technologies needed to fight climate change and build a clean economy. Across the country, clean energy solutions are providing enormous economic opportunity for Canada.
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Canada has developed its own critical minerals strategy with the aim of advancing the development of these resources and related value chains to drive the transition to a low-carbon economy and support advanced technology and manufacturing.
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The Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy addresses five core objectives:
o supporting economic growth, competitiveness and job creation;
o promoting climate action and strong environmental management;
o enhancing global security and partnerships with allies;
o advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples; and
o fostering diverse and inclusive workforces and communities.
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Canada’s whole-of-government approach to critical mineral development is collaborative, forward-looking, iterative, adaptive and long-term. The initiatives presented in the Strategy will be implemented and refined in collaboration with provincial, territorial, Indigenous, industry and other Canadian and international partners.
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The CMIF is a key program under the Strategy to support enabling clean energy and transportation infrastructure projects necessary to increase Canada’s supply of responsibly sourced critical minerals.
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The CMIF supports strategic priorities such as decarbonizing industrial mining operations, strengthening supply chains through transportation infrastructure and advancing economic reconciliation by supporting the participation of Indigenous Peoples in infrastructure and critical minerals projects.
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In addition, the federal government is helping to develop Canada’s abundant critical minerals through NRCan’s Regional Energy and Resource Tables. These regional tables are joint partnerships with individual provinces and territories — in collaboration with Indigenous partners and with the input of key stakeholders — to identify and accelerate shared economic priorities for a low-carbon future in the energy and resource sectors.
Cindy Caturao
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
613-795-5638
cindy.caturao@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca