Nordamerikas erste elektrochemische Lithiumraffinierungsanlage wird in BC eröffnet

Quebec is also ramping up lithium extraction. Good start to making our battery manufacturing take off and helping reduce the reliance on China that uses rare earth as a weapon in negotiations.

Kudos to Mangrove Lithium CEO/founder Saad Dara. The long path to this point and perseverance it required.

There are many lithium (and other critical mineral) initiatives underway in Canada of which some notable ones:

* E3 lithium hydroxide production facility in development in Alberta
* Frontier Lithium’s PAK Project in Ontario the largest lithium project in Ontario, encompassing both a mine and mill as well as a downstream conversion facility for manufacturing battery-quality lithium chemicals
* Sinomine’s Tantalum Mining Tanco Mine which has proven reserves of lithium along with other critical minerals

Canada’s lithium mining output has increased from 3,240 metric tons in 2023 to 4,300 metric tons in 2024. I could not find 2025 production estimates although analysts were predicting a 150% increase in 2025 which I think would place Canada 4th in lithium mining output worldwide.

From the federal government update on critical mineral strategies:

As of March 2025, Canada has:

* 56 active mines producing critical minerals
* 31 critical mineral processing facilities
* 171 advanced critical mineral projects, including 28 processing projects
* Domestic production of critical minerals in Canada has increased by more than 10% for 9 critical minerals by 2024: aluminum, graphite, lithium, magnesium (magnesite), molybdenum, niobium, platinum group metals, scandium and uranium.
* 1 critical mineral mine began commercial operations, namely Sayona’s North American lithium mine (QC).
* 2 mine expansion projects targeting critical minerals reached completion, namely Vale’s Voisey’s Bay nickel mine (NL) and Glencore’s Raglan nickel mine (QC).
* 1 critical mineral project received a positive federal environmental assessment decision, namely Rio Tinto’s Galaxy project (QC).
* 14 critical mineral projects advanced through the federal impact assessment process.
* 68 company technical reports demonstrating project feasibility were released for critical mineral projects, including 20 for lithium, 10 for copper and 7 for nickel.
* 5 critical mineral projects were referred to the Major Projects Office for further review: 
* Foran Mining’s McIlvenna Bay Copper project (SK)
* Newmont & Imperial Metals’ Red Chris mine expansion (BC)
* Canada Nickel’s Crawford project (ON)
* Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie project (QC)
* Northcliff Resources’ Sisson project (NB)

The feds have not been sitting still on this matter. Heavily investing and it is a sector in which key allies in NATO are coming forward as investors or purchasers of output.

China will never lose its lead.

What we haven’t seemed to figure out is to mimic what they did, which is to leap frog a technology altogether. They couldn’t beat us on ICE vehicles so they focused on electric.

We will not beat them on any of the processes listed in this article. Not this company, not any of the others we are “investing in”.

It’s too late for that. We are way too far behind and we do not have the tech advantage nor capital nor market nor demand that the Chinese do.

Now we just have to slap a 50% tariff on the United States for our lithium.