Industry profile: Critical minerals

Critical minerals represent a key economic and employment opportunity at home and abroad for Canada. Critical minerals such as copper, nickel, graphite, lithium, and rare earth elements are the raw materials used in many of the technologies that will power the clean economy, including wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicle batteries. They are also essential for a number of defence and aerospace technologies, electronics, and agricultural products. Global demand for critical minerals is expected to double by 2040.

Canada is uniquely positioned to benefit from this growing market as we have an abundance of many critical minerals and the know-how to responsibly scale up the mining, processing and manufacturing of products, as well as the recycling of these minerals.

Current actions

• The Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy, backed by $3.8 billion of funding, seeks to increase the supply of responsibly sourced critical minerals and support the development of domestic and global value chains for the green and digital economy, as well as defence applications. This includes through initiatives such as:

  • The Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund, which aims to accelerate critical mineral mine development and support Indigenous engagement and participation related to critical minerals infrastructure (Note: As announced in Budget 2025, the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund will be replaced and subsumed by the First and Last Mile Fund, which will provide a total of $1.5 billion until 2030 to support an expanded suite of activities in support of critical minerals projects in Canada);
  • The Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration Program, which supports the development of innovative processing technologies for the critical minerals industry; and
  • The introduction of tax credits, such as the Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit, for certain exploration expenditures targeting a selection of critical minerals.

• Natural Resources Canada, through the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan, is helping to attract new workers to this growing sector by working collaboratively with provinces, territories, and industry on several initiatives to increase awareness and interest in mining careers and to identify key skills gaps in the sector:

  • Investing in initiatives by the Mining Industry Human Resources Council, including the Mining Ambassador Program, the Mining Career Seeker Dashboard, and the National Youth Mining Career Awareness Strategy.

• Launching social media campaigns, such as the Canadians of Mining, to improve awareness about the sector and the career options available, while helping to connect jobseekers with opportunities.

  • Publishing a Mineral Literacy Hub, which pulls together relevant information for jobseekers, on training programs, career paths, job locations, and salaries, to help them start or advance their career in mining.
• The Government of Canada funded the Mining Sector Skills and Solutions Strategy project, under the Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program. This project supported jobs in Canada’s mining sector, providing 416 work placements, offering scholarships to 643 students, and updating job information for the industry.

Economic opportunity

• Good jobs for Canadians: The mining industry offers diverse career paths and competitive compensation, while also contributing to local economies through job creation, increased tax revenues, and infrastructure development. Canada needs to train and retain over 191,000 new workers from now until 2034 to meet the demand for critical minerals and support the clean energy transition.
• Already valuable: In 2024, the broader minerals and metals sector directly and indirectly supported 724,000 jobs and contributed $156 billion to Canadian GDP. The accelerating energy transition is setting this industry up for further, rapid growth in critical minerals, which directly and indirectly contributed $40 billion to Canada’s nominal GDP and almost 110,000 jobs in 2023.
• Leading the way: Funding for critical minerals exploration grew by 15% globally in 2023, with Canada registering one of the largest increases.^{Footnote 1}
• Growing markets: Growth in zero-emission vehicles and clean energy industries is driving significant global demand growth for critical minerals. Lithium demand rose by 30% in 2024, while nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements saw increases of between 6% and 8%. The energy sector accounted for 85% of total demand growth for battery metals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and graphite.^{Footnote 2}

Critical minerals career examples

Critical minerals projects depend on a highly skilled and diverse workforce, drawing on expertise from many fields. Examples of skills and fields are provided below.

Anticipated workforce opportunities

• 
  2 times
  global critical minerals demand expected to double by 2040

• 
  Up to
  191,000
  new mining workers needed overall by 2034

• 
  12 new mines
  needed for domestic ZEV battery production

• 
  Approximately
  20%
  of current workforce over the age of 55
  ^{Footnote 5}

Additional information and resources

Career Resources

• Mining Needs You
• Career Seeker Dashboard - Mining Needs You
• Mineral Literacy Hub – Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan
• Job Bank

Resources

• Critical minerals in Canada
• The Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy
• Critical minerals: an opportunity for Canada
• Canada’s Critical Minerals Map
• The Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan