Ontario is starting a two-year, $5 million critical minerals innovation fund to support research and development of new technologies.
The fund is to support Ontario-based new technologies in the supply chain for green energy like electric vehicles by connecting mineral resources in the north with manufacturing in the south, provincial mines minister George Pirie said in a news release on Thursday.
"Our goal is to supply our province, country and allies with the critical minerals we need to meet our climate goals and transition to a cleaner, sustainable economy," Pirie said. "This investment will leverage Ontario's expertise to tap into new and growing markets and ensure we capitalize on the growing demand for responsibly and ethically sourced critical minerals."
Ontario is keen to develop projects for critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel needed for electric vehicle batteries and other industries in renewable energy, which Pirie has said could be worth billions of dollars. But few projects are in advanced stages and developing them in the remote northern region remains extremely difficult while infrastructure like all-season roads is limited.
The new fund is aimed at promoting collaboration between industry, colleges and start-ups to drive the commercialization of technologies to extract and process critical minerals, the ministry said. It may help exploration, mining, smelting and processing. It could also support new technologies that would allow companies to recover critical minerals from mine tailings and waste sites across the province, it said.
"Ontario has everything companies need to grow and thrive, and we're excited to see the made-in-Ontario solutions that will be developed through this fund," Vic Fedeli, minister of economic development, said in the same release. "We continue to build Ontario by connecting critical minerals in the north with world-class manufacturing in a sustainable way."
Ontario is accepting applications for support from the fund until Dec. 18, the ministry said.
Green energy manufacturing projects in the province include Stellantis (NYSE: STLA) investing $5 billion in an electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor, and Umicore building a $1.5 billion battery materials plant in eastern Ont. near Kingston.
Up north, Ring of Fire Metals (TSXV: ROF) wants communities to approve roads linking to its Eagle's Nest nickel, copper and platinum group metals project. The company fought off giant BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) in a battle for assets. But U.S.-based Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF) pulled out of the area in 2013 despite having already spent half a billion dollars to advance chromite deposits there.
In March, the province started a five-year plan to promote Ontario as a global leader in supplying critical minerals. Weeks later, for its Budget 2022, the federal government said it would spend nearly $3.8 billion on a critical minerals strategy over several years.
Ontario produced minerals valued at more than $11.1 billion last year, accounting for 20% of Canada's total mineral output and about $3.1 billion worth of critical minerals, the ministry said.