Although the 22-page report entitled, Critical Minerals: A Critical Look notes that metals are needed for the energy transition, the author questions whether the entire supply needs to be mined.

"The 'supply chain' part is where the investors' and mining companies' attention perks up. The growth in interest in "critical minerals" is widely seen as an opportunity to gain public buy-in for new mining exploration and development-and public money," it reads.

Additionally, the report also looks at whether EVs are the climate game-changer they are often touted to be.

"Electric cars and trucks are being offered as the consumer-friendly solution to the problems of our current energy and transportation system, but it's clear from the sheer amount of mining that will be needed that Canada, and the world, is facing a choice between maintaining the status quo by churning up untold amounts of ground in search of raw materials or altering the way we build our cities, get around, consume goods and handle our waste," it reads.

Mining Magazine spoke with Nikki Skuce, the author of the report and a member of Northern Confluence, about the initiative's goals and the report's findings.

 Based in Smithers, BC, in Wetʼsuwetʼen territory, Northern Confluence was born following the Mount Polley mining disaster in August 2014.

"We created this initiative really around salmon conservation and changing the way land use decisions were made in Northwest BC," she said.  "But really, we do a lot of policy advocacy. We have focused on trying to improve mining practices and also support Indigenous governance and conservation areas."

Some of the mining reforms the group is championing include revising the provincial mining tenure acts, more robust reclamation bonds and better tailings management.

While Northern Confluence is not an anti-mining group, understanding that mining is an integral part of value chains, the advocacy initiative is pro-mindful mining.

As Skuce explained, miners can be more mindful of their project approach in several ways.

"[The Canadian mining sector] really does need to engage early with indigenous nations whose territories they're going to be operating in,' she said, noting that this also involves accepting when a First Nations group does not want a project in its region.

Skuce would also like all these companies to adopt a best practices strategy.

"A lot of the mining companies in British Columbia don't even subscribe to the Towards Sustainable Mining [initiative] of the Mining Association of Canada," she said.

Casting a wider net

To produce the metals needed to meet the energy transition goals, Northern Confluence is calling on the mining sector to reprocess historical tailings and bolster urban mining efforts.

"There are a bunch of legacy mines scattered throughout the province. My understanding is that a lot of copper tailings have some of the rare earth minerals that had no value 15 years ago and now do,' said Skuce.  "So, what kind of incentives could be there to re-mine and reclaim those spaces?"

In terms of urban mining, the report points to the thousands of tonnes of metals that can be recovered from landfills.

"[In BC] metals account for 3% of what enters the landfill-5,000 tonnes of material. Worldwide, the rate is worse: less than a third of construction waste is recycled, and even less for electronic waste, at just one-fifth," it reads.

"We can't replace every combustion engine with an EV; we just don't have the materials globally to do that," said Skuce, who suggests broad changes to city planning, public transit and active transport.

 "But we also need to look at where else can we mine these resources, and that's through re-mining and urban mining and recycling," she added.

More generally, the organisation wants Canadians to reevaluate their consumption levels.

"Instead of taking the necessary transition away from fossil fuels as an opportunity to mine more intensively, we should be re-evaluating our production and consumption of energy and minerals," Skuce rote in the report.

Skuce and Northern Confluence are also concerned about non-critical metals mining. Of the six metals deemed critical in Canada -lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earth- BC only produces copper and graphite but has approximately 71 active mines.

As the report noted, more than 60% of those are coal and gold mines, "neither of which is considered a critical mineral in Canada."

"I feel like there's a bit of manipulation," said Skuce. "It's like, well, wait a second, you're a gold mine that's not a critical mineral for us."