Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen.
My experience with critical minerals and with processing them into active materials for batteries spans more than 36 years. My team and I are responsible for many publications, book chapters and patents in this field, a number of which have had commercial success. For example, lithium salt, iron phosphate, graphite and titanium oxide are used today in many types of battery technology for electronics, energy storage and electric vehicles.
From June 2020 to December 2021, I acted as a strategic advisor for Investissement Québec and the Government of Quebec. Because of my international network and 36 years of experience in the lithium-ion battery field, I was able to open doors around the world for Investissement Québec and Quebec's department of economy, science and innovation to promote opportunities, to achieve greater recognition of Quebec's mining industry—from its mines to its recycling facilities—and to attract to Quebec international players in various industries, including ores, precursors, cathodes, anodes and cells.
The Quebec government is working on several fronts to create a green circular economy for batteries, with a focus on the traceablity of greenhouse gases, GHGs, emissions and on a stable and secure supply chain in Canada.
Developing batteries requires two steps from the mine to the cell. There is the processing of rock into ores at the mine, and then the processing of the ores into the active materials, such as cathodes or anodes.
The first step, which involves opening and operating a mine, takes a number of years, sometimes more than 10. The second step, to produce a known material at industrial scale, takes anywhere from two to three to seven years. For a new material, it can take many years.
In order to reduce the time for the first transformation, mining, I suggest that the federal government creates a committee, including the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, with first nations leadership, to facilitate the reduction of time for environmental assessments and the permits required to open mines, in particular for critical minerals. Of course, we should include constant monitoring of environmental impact audits to these projects. This committee should help finance mining projects with multi-billion-dollar budgets, as these projects are very expensive by their nature.
As for the second transformation, I recommend the creation of special federal funding of and programs in critical minerals to support the local transformation of the minerals into active materials for applications. Some critical minerals, such as rare earth elements, should be considered national security elements. For example, we find 16 or 17 rare elements in one iPhone. It is critical for the country and for the local transformation of critical minerals to protect them from foreign interests.
Canada must also invest in bringing back the national industry of microelectronic chips manufactured using local silicon, which is essential for several electronic components in electric vehicles and batteries. Moreover, the programs should include the funding of research and innovation, universities, colleges, research institutes and industry. This would reduce the time of production. Through the technology transfer for local companies, an international company would establish manufacturers in Canada as well, putting Canada at the forefront.
In addition, I suggest that the Government of Canada establish three industry centres for mining and engineering in different regions of the country to design machine prototypes for mineral processing with full technology transfer. The objective is to build a new manufacturing industry in Canada. This strategy would create many jobs and strengthen Canada's industrial independence.
Thank you very much.