Greater Sudbury was involved in some cross-border trade diplomacy this week.
Nearly 20 mining leaders and state delegates from Utah were hosted by the City of Greater Sudbury and its Invest Sudbury economic development branch.
Part of that exercise involved bringing the delegates to Sudbury's NORCAT business centre Aug. 26 where they were greeted by Mayor Paul Lefebvre who outlined the role and importance of Sudbury as one of Canada's key mining municipalities, which has no less than nine operating mines.
One U.S. delegate asked Lefebvre if the local mining focus is changing from actually extracting minerals to processing minerals.
Lefebvre said one significant change is that Sudbury used to see a lot of its nickel being directed to the creation of stainless steel. But that meant the nickel was being exported out of Canada.
"But now that world has changed and we need more nickel in the batteries," said Lefebvre. He said the battery electric vehicle (BEV) revolution has slowed down but said Sudbury is very optimistic it will still happen.
"We actually have a big BEV conference here at the end of May, when a lot of the car companies come in and they talk to us, and with them the processing companies as well. So we certainly see our strategic advantage in the City of Greater Sudbury, because we do processing and we're not afraid of the pollution," said Lefebvre.
He explained that nickel mining and processing in Ontario has changed to become a greener and more environmentally friendly process.
Lefebvre said Sudbury has confidence in the provincial regulations and policies for mining and that the companies will adhere to the rules.
"So that's why we see ourselves as the next place to do a nickel sulfate plant, which does not exist in North America," said the mayor.
He said there are plans for such a plant to be created in Bécancour, Qué. and it would need to use high-purity nickel from Sudbury.
Lefebvre said some nickel-related products and battery products are currently being supplied only by China. He suggested that is not the ideal solution.
"We've got to partner with partners that are like-minded, right, that believe in our geopolitical stability and security, and I believe critical minerals play at the forefront of that," the mayor said.
Also speaking to the delegates was Marla Tremblay, executive director of MineConnect, the Ontario-wide organization that represents the interests of mining supply and service companies.
Tremblay said a whole new focus has been put on the mining industry because of the demand for critical minerals. This would include such minerals as nickel, lithium, cobalt, copper, graphite, platinum group elements (PGEs), and titanium.
She said Ontario already has experience with a U.S. partner as MineConnect has opened an office in Nevada, one of Utah's neighbouring states.
Tremblay said a recent gap analysis was done by the Nevada governor's office and MineConnect was invited to help out.
"They identified things that they need, and we've worked together to help fill those gaps with folks we have,” Tremblay said. “We're able to share those technologies and knowledge that we have in Ontario and help fill the gaps in Nevada. It helps them attract investment, helps them create businesses. It helps them create jobs."
Brian Somers, president of the Utah Mining Association, was one of the U.S. delegates at NORCAT Tuesday. He said the mining community in Utah is pleased with the idea of partnerships.
"We're very interested, obviously, in having the sort of sub-national relationships between the Province of Ontario and the State of Utah, finding opportunities for business connections and also for sharing information between two world-class mining jurisdictions,” he said.
Somers said despite the trade disputes between Canada and the U.S. at the national level, Utah wants to keep doing business with Ontario.
"We do have a lot of business connections already between your province and our state, and obviously want to maintain those,” Somers said. “We want to look for new opportunities, especially for some of our service companies to do business here and vice versa."
He added that there are plenty of opportunities for new business as well.
"We actually have a number of mining operations in Utah that are owned by Canadian companies, and we are always looking for more investment to come into our state,” he said. “So there's just a multiplicity of reasons that we want to make sure that we're maintaining relationships and building new ones.”
Somers said Utah mining groups look forward to sharing goods, services and expertise with its Canadian counterparts.
Also speaking to the delegates was Sudbury MP Viviane Lapointe, who was at the NORCAT building to make a FedNor announcement.
She said that mining in Canada and in Sudbury is growing because of the rising demand for critical minerals.
"Bloomberg says the demand for critical minerals across the world will grow by 500 per cent within the next 40 years, and we have work to do in order to meet that demand," said Lapointe.
She told the U.S. group that Canada is indeed serious about its commitment to the development and mining of critical minerals and that it happened long before any of the current trade disputes.
"So our federal government actually did something that it had never done before,” Lapointe said. “We announced $39 billion towards critical minerals in the 2023 budget, and we did it before the policy framework was developed.”
Len Gillis covers mining and health care for Sudbury.com.
