Canada recently announced investments into a dozen projects nationwide aimed at advancing the mining and clean energy sectors.
Minister of Energy Tim Hodgson unveiled up to $73 million in funding, including $51M through the First and Last Mile Fund for five projects to advance critical minerals production, as well as $20M under the Energy Innovation Program for five projects to advance clean energy and industrial decarbonization technologies.
“Canada is ready to build,” says Hodgson.
By investing in clean innovation and critical infrastructure, the minister says “we are unlocking our full potential and moving major projects forward with greater speed and certainty.”
“These investments will create good jobs, deliver lasting prosperity for Canadians, and position Canada as a supplier of choice in the critical minerals the world is counting on,” Hodgson remarked.
Energy Innovation Program funding recipients include pH7 Technologies, which garnered $5M to demonstrate its first-of-its-kind copper production technology using samples from a local mine in British Columbia.
The project will validate pH7’s proprietary process, which converts low-grade sulfide ore directly into pure copper cathodes on-site while generating green hydrogen as a valuable by-product.
The project is currently advancing through engineering and technology development phases, generating technical data to evaluate future demonstration opportunities and de-risk future commercial deployment.
Founded in 2020, pH7 earlier this year raised US$32 million amid expansion in Canada.
ReThink Mining also received $5M, in their case to demonstrate battery-electric vehicles at multiple underground mine sites across Canada.
Another $5M went to Hudbay Minerals, which will replace traditional diesel mining equipment with electric vehicles and charging infrastructure to reduce emissions and noise.
And, in another diesel-to-electric manoeuvre, IAMGOLD Corporation attracted $2.4M to replace large diesel haul trucks with electric counterparts. IAMGOLD also received an additional $2.2M to implement energy recovery technologies in underground ventilation systems.