Thank you, Madam Chair.
Arianne Phosphate is a mining company headquartered in Chicoutimi which is launching a phosphate production project in Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean. Arianne Phosphate owns a phosphate deposit in Lac à Paul, a fully approved project that is ready to build, 200 km to the north of the city of Saguenay.
The asset is one of the largest undeveloped deposits in the world and capable of producing environmentally friendly phosphate concentrate. Owing to its purity and low level of contaminants, the Arianne company's phosphate can be used to produce fertilizer and specialized applications like food, animal feed and lithium iron phosphate batteries.
We are planning to build an open pit mine, an ore processing plant, and a deepwater port, in addition to leveling 240 km of forest roads to ship our annual three million tons of phosphate concentrate. When fully operational, the business would require approximately 375 employees.
Phosphorus is a key element in agriculture, and because nothing can be substituted for it, it is indispensable for crop development. It promotes root development and enhances resistance to drought. Recent disruptions in the world food chain resulting from quotas on exports from China and Russia have been aggravated by the situation in Ukraine. As a result, the selling price has increased considerably, and some countries, like India, have had to review their supply strategies.
Canada has not been a phosphate producing country since 2013, when Agrium, now called Nutrien, closed the mine in Kapuskasing, Ontario. We are therefore now 100% dependent on imports, mainly from the United States, which itself is a net importer. The economic performance of Canada's prairie provinces is now dependent on our capacity to obtain supplies of phosphate from overseas, even though the product is one for which Canada should be a net exporter.
There are potential clients for Arianne Phosphate around the world. The Indo-Pacific sector is particularly interesting, because it is a steadily growing market for phosphate product imports, whether for use in the traditional fertilizer or technological applications like the manufacturing of batteries for the electrification of transportation.
That being the case, the current study being conducted by the committee on trade opportunities in the ASEAN countries is very important for Canada's phosphate industry and for Arianne Phosphate. It's an opportunity for Canada to play an international role with a with a future-oriented product that addresses global needs: the use of fertilizer to enhance food productivity, and the development of lithium iron phosphate batteries for the global energy transition.
Although phosphorus is an abundant element on Earth, its geographical distribution makes it very vulnerable in terms of supply security, given that world reserves are mainly concentrated in North Africa and China.
The quality of the concentrates produced in these countries is also much lower than for those in Canada. The origin of our phosphate is igneous rather than sedimentary, making it possible to achieve a concentrate that has a much higher level of purity and that is virtually free of heavy metals or radioactive elements. This is very important for its use in fertilizer, and even more so for battery manufacturing, a subject that was studied by the committee last winter. Indeed, only a limited percentage of world phosphate reserves is suitable for the production of phosphoric acid that meets the technical specifications of battery manufacturers.
Canada has a role to play in solidifying its strategic advantage in phosphorus. It's disappointing to see that this metal of the future is not included in Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy. The government is also relying heavily on mining exploration, but few mining projects are underway in Canada. There are various reasons for this, including the lengthy time periods required and strict regulations, not to mention the lack of support for mining infrastructure development.
If Canada hopes to grow its expertise and export opportunities with the ASEAN countries to meet growing demand, including for phosphate, then government policies need to be in tune with the needs of the mining companies, including ours.
We applaud a future free trade agreement with the ASEAN countries, and believe that it is an opportunity for our industry that should not be missed. We simply hope that the government will be there to implement policies that are favourable to the future development of our sector.
Thank you.