Natural Resources Committee on Nov. 25th, 2013

[Christiane Villemure]

No. There are about 200 projects in Canada, and those that are shown on this map are the most advanced.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Can you tell us who owns these companies, what the country of origin is? How many are Canadian-owned and how many are foreign-owned?

[Christiane Villemure]

Mr. Chairman, I think most of them are Canadian-owned. Some may have participation from other countries. The Matamec deposit, for example, has Japanese participation. But I believe they are all run by Canadian companies.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Is this information that you can give to the committee?

[Christiane Villemure]

Absolutely. I would be pleased to do that.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

Where do you think the rare earths fit into Canada's natural resources?

[Christiane Villemure]

Mr. Chairman, the role of the department is to study commodities and needs for commodities. Rare earths is a relatively new field for the department, as for most countries in the world. We have started with some steps to advance our knowledge and understanding of the economics and science behind them. I believe that what we are doing is state-of-the-art and is at the forefront of scientific knowledge.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

I know that the deposit in Kipawa is open pit. Are most of these mines open pits, or are they shaft mining—underground mining?

[Christiane Villemure]

I would need to get back to you on that. I don't have the answer for each of these mines. Many are open pit. Some will be underground mines as well.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Can you supply us that information?

[Christiane Villemure]

Yes.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

Can you talk to me a little bit more about the tailings? I think you said a while ago in your presentation that there was some problems with the tailings.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Habib, go ahead, please, sir.

[Magdi Habib]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Throughout the metallurgical process for the production of rare earths elements during the mining or the beneficiation step of the process, there are attempts to concentrate the rare earths minerals, and throughout this process, either by flotation or magnetic separation, you produce some tailings, which is waste material that is being disposed of.

We know that many of the minerals we have contain radioactive elements, such as thorium and uranium, so the tailings might contain those elements along with some rare earths elements. One of the studies we are planning to do in our laboratories, in collaboration with many partners in Canada, is to manage those tailings and ensure that the radioactive contents of the tailings are being managed, and that throughout the process we are recovering most of the rare earths elements from the tailings, which has an economic value.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

On slide 10, you list a number of mining companies that are operating presently as the most advanced in Canada. Can you tell me whether any one of these companies is planning to build a refinery in Canada or has started building a refinery?

[Christiane Villemure]

Mr. Chairman, I will take this question.

Avalon Rare Metals has announced that they would consider building a separation plant. The location of that plant would be in Louisiana, in the United States. Another company, Quest, has recently announced that it will build a separation plant in Bécancour, Quebec. As far as we know, these are plans. There is not a lot of detail on these plans or on the nature of the separation plants.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

In other words, some of our rare earths are going to be exported to the U.S. to be refined?

[Christiane Villemure]

That is a possibility. Mind you, at this stage these are plans, and the environment could change.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Can you tell me how the aboriginal communities in Canada are affected by rare earth mining?

[Christiane Villemure]

I don't have a lot of information on this issue. At the outset, what I can provide the committee is an appreciation that most of these projects have engaged first nations and that first nations are generally interested in the mining developments.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

You mentioned that China is being taken to the World Court because of their production cutback. What happens if China wins? Is the rest of the world being held prisoner?

[Christiane Villemure]

That's an interesting question, Mr. Chairman.

China has made the decision to keep production internally to feed its own manufacturing industries. If China wins, it is possible that the demand for heavy rare earths especially will increase, but this will also increase the pressure and willingness to find new mines and new producers elsewhere in the world.

There are a number of projects—we have talked about the Canadian ones, but there are also projects elsewhere—to eventually produce heavy rare earths.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you, Mr. Gravelle.

We go now to Mr. Regan for up to seven minutes.

Go ahead, please.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Thank you to the witnesses.

Thank you very much for being here today. It is most appreciated.

I understand that about 30% of rare earth deposits are in China. I'm talking just about rare earths and not specifically heavy elements that are a part of those earths. You told us that China will have almost ended its mining in five to eight years because those earths will be depleted. There will be a lack of rare earths. Considering it's 30% now, that doesn't seem like much time. At what point should we be concerned about the future of rare earths?

[Christiane Villemure]

Mr. Chairman, the projections on China are based on known reserves and the published literature. China, like other—