Mr. Chair, thanks. I will start, and then I'll pass to Nancy.
Members of the committee, good afternoon. It's a pleasure to appear before you today and have the opportunity to address the important topic of how Canada can position itself as a key supplier and enabler of critical minerals with the global low-carbon transformation that is under way.
My name is Juan Merlini. I oversee the sales and marketing function for Vale's base metals globally. I am joined by my colleague Nancy Concepcion, who leads our marketing and research teams for the base metals business line.
Before we begin, we would like to acknowledge that we are presenting to you today from the traditional lands of the Anishinabe, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat and Mississaugas of the Credit territories. Vale would also like to acknowledge the indigenous peoples whose lands we operate on in Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Vale is one of the world's largest integrated mining companies with global headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and a market cap of approximately $90 billion.
Our global base metals business has a rich 119-year history. It is headquartered in Toronto and has operations across five continents. We are present in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba. As one of the largest producers of high-quality nickel and an important producer of copper and responsibly sourced cobalt, we produce the metals that are critical to building a cleaner and greener future.
Our operations in Canada provide employment to over 12,500 Canadians. Our direct and indirect GDP contributions to the Canadian economy over the past decade have totalled $43.7 billion Canadian, which includes $12.7 billion in capital investments.
Vale Canada produces 97,000 tonnes of nickel, representing 51% of the country's nickel output. Vale Canada produces over 125,000 tonnes of copper, representing 23% of the country's copper output. Regarding other key minerals for the low-carbon economy, Vale Canada also produces over 2,000 tonnes of cobalt as well as platinum and palladium.
Vale shares the government's determination to decarbonize the Canadian economy and create a greener and healthier future for Canadians. We have set ambitious decarbonization goals for all Vale's businesses across the world. By 2030, our plan is to achieve a 33% reduction in GHG emissions, and by 2050, carbon neutrality. Our company has announced $2 billion to meet these ambitious goals, and we are already under way in defining projects to get us to this target.
These efforts have involved, and will involve, far-reaching changes. I'd like to highlight that Vale in Ontario has already spent $1.5 billion to clean the air we breathe. Our clean AER, atmospheric emissions reduction, project, was the single largest environmental investment in the history of Greater Sudbury and resulted in an 85% reduction in sulphur dioxide, a 40% reduction in metals particulate and a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas from our Copper Cliff smelter complex. Looking at the present and to the future, we are focusing our efforts on electrifying our fleet, switching our fuels from diesel to biofuels and exploring the feasibility of storing carbon in tailings.
Our GHG agenda is only one part of Vale base metals' broader effort to advance the environmental, social and governance performance of our company and our industry. Given the issues around critical minerals in other parts of the world, we believe the Canadian mining sector has a special responsibility to set the standard in building positive relationships with local communities and delivering benefits to indigenous partners and other stakeholders where we do business.
As we look to the future, we believe that Vale is well positioned to contribute to the development of the electric vehicle industry. Here in Canada, we produce three key base metals: nickel, cobalt and copper. All of them are important components of the EV supply chain, but meeting Canada's aspirations to be a player in this market will involve addressing some important issues.
Meeting the rising demand will be a challenge, particularly for copper and nickel.
We also need to develop strategic long-term relationships in key spaces, such as EVs, and this includes partnerships with leading academics, institutions, customers and OEM producers that support long-term and significant investment. These innovation and supply chain ecosystems are essential.
Coordination among government levels will also be very important, as the supply chain will need federal, provincial and local coordination to ensure that we can respond to this generational opportunity as efficiently and cohesively as possible.
Bringing new nickel, copper or cobalt deposits online is capital intensive and takes a considerable amount of time. Even in the most stable and favourable mining investment jurisdictions like Canada, it still takes at least seven to 10 years from the discovery of a viable deposit until you have commercial production
All of these highlight the need to have the greatest amount of policy certainty, permitting support, coordination and commitment from government, which are essential for success. Lack of attention with regard to the upstream and the necessary investment in the upstream aspects of the supply chain and related processing development will constrain the development of the EV supply chain in Canada.
We see industry, downstream manufacturers and all levels of government as partners, and in order for a North American supply chain to be developed and remain robust, we will all need to work together to make this happen.
I'll pass it over to my colleague Nancy to highlight the landscape for EVs.