There’s also $144.4 million over five years for Natural Resources Canada and the National Research Council “to support research, development, and the deployment of technologies and materials” to support critical mineral value chains.
Trent Mell, chief executive of Toronto-headquartered Electra Battery Materials Corp., which is developing a cobalt refinery near Cobalt, Ontario, and plans to refine nickel in the future, said the budget creates a focus on the missing parts of in the battery supply chain.
“I think it’s going to be a boon to the what I call the midstream of the auto supply chain,” said Mell.
He said in recent, government loans and grants have attracted electric vehicle assembly plants and battery cell manufacturing. But there’s still a lack of industrial operations for a series of steps required to convert ore, such as cobalt, nickel and lithium, into the various chemical forms necessary to make batteries.
How Trudeau proposes to make Canada a key supplier of critical minerals | Financial Post