Adedokun Waliyu 
One of the many ironies of the Trudeau government’s clean energy strategy is that it means dramatically increasing the number of mining operations in Canada and approving them far more quickly than in the past.
What’s driving the need for a mining boom is the Trudeau government’s edict that 60% of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in Canada must be electric by 2030, increasing to 100% in 2035, along with 35% of new medium and heavy-duty vehicles by 2030 and, where feasible, 100% by 2040.
According to the International Energy Agency, a typical electric vehicle and its battery requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle – including lithium, nickel, copper and tellurium.
So not only will there have to be more mines approved but the current lengthy federal and provincial government approval processes for mining operations will have to be short-circuited, inevitably raising objections from some environmental and Indigenous groups.
A report released by the fiscally conservative Fraser Institute last week is the latest to address this issue.
It estimates there will have to be 388 new mines in operation internationally by 2030 to meet the increased global demand for the metals and other materials needed to manufacture EVs and their batteries.
Supply chains to deliver them to manufacturing plants will also have to be developed, along with overhauling electricity generation to meet increased demands for charging.
To put that figure of 388 new mines internationally in perspective, study author Kenneth Green says that as of 2021, there were 270 metal mines operating in the U.S., and 70 in Canada for a total of 340.
“The sheer scale of mining required to meet EV mandates raises serious questions about the timelines being imposed by governments” Green said.
He notes that new lithium mines, for example, typically take between six and nine years from start-up to government approval to begin operations, while nickel mines take between 13 and 18 years.
In that context, massively gearing up EV vehicle production so that it represents 60% of all new passenger car and light vehicle sales by 2030 (seven years away) and 100% by 2035 (12 years away) seems unrealistic.
This file photo taken on March 12, 2021 shows a worker with car batteries at a factory for Xinwangda Electric Vehicle Battery Co. Ltd, which makes lithium batteries for electric cars and other uses, in Nanjing in China’s eastern Jiangsu province. STR/AFP via Getty Images
The only alternative is to import the metals and materials needed for EV production, mainly from China, the global leader in mining them under generally appalling environmental conditions.
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has acknowledged the need for dramatically speeding up mining approvals to meet the government’s EV production goals.
“We have to go faster” he told CBC’s David Cochrane on Power & Politics last December. “It cannot take us 12 to 15 years to permit new mines in this country if we want to successfully advance the energy transition.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s fall economic statement last week reported that, “by some estimates, global demand for critical minerals for clean energy technologies will double or even triple by 2030, driven largely by electric vehicles and battery storage, as well as clean electricity generation and transmission.”
It said Canada is already a global leader in developing a critical minerals strategy and will soon “outline a concrete plan to further improve the efficiency of the permitting and impact assessment processes for major projects.”
The government says its EV regulations for passenger vehicles will reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 430 megatons between 2026 – the first year of the EV transition policy when 20% of new vehicles sales must be EVs – and 2050.
