‘Critical Minerals’ in Manitoba’s Energy Transition

Feb 19, 2026 | In The News, Position Statement

Image credit: Cameron MacIntosh/CBC

Introduction

At the centre of the energy transition lies an uncomfortable fact: many technologies that help reduce emissions rely on so-called “critical minerals,” yet mining these resources has significant negative social and environmental impacts.

Our work at CAT primarily focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions; however, many other organizations, such as MiningWatch Canada, the Wilderness Committee, CPAWS, and Manitoba Eco-Network, provide far more detailed analyses of mining, impact assessments, and the protection of communities and natural ecosystems. However, the tension between critical minerals mining and climate solutions (including those that CAT advocates) warrants discussion, especially given that the federal Bill C-5 and similar provincial bills have significantly deregulated the sector, in part justified by climate objectives.

This article discusses the current critical minerals rush and how the climate movement might approach it. There are no easy answers, but we advocate for transition pathways that require fewer critical minerals to limit mining impacts. Stronger impact assessments, land-use planning processes, industry regulations and standards, and public consultation are also needed to curtail risks—but that is not the focus of this post.

 

Critical Minerals Mining and Impacts in Canada

“Critical minerals” is a relatively new term to describe minerals and other natural materials that have been designated as important by the government due to: 1) a rapid increase in demand for use in electrification, militarization, and digital technologies; and 2) alleged vulnerabilities to supply chain shocks due to China’s global dominance of the mining and processing of these minerals. Over the last year, especially due to Trump’s re-election, the use of critical minerals for electrification has largely been sidelined in favour of building military hardware; Canada’s new “Defence Industrial Strategy” also called for accelerating critical minerals projects and supply chains “aligned with national defence and allied needs.”

Canada is explicitly positioning itself as a potential primary supplier of these commodities, with several critical minerals projects being prioritized by the new federal Major Projects Office (including two copper mines, a graphite mine, a nickel mine, and a new transmission line to power “critical minerals developments”). Manitoba has also developed a critical minerals strategy to grow the sector.

The promotion of critical minerals development has understandably brought forth an array of concerns about the impacts of increased mining on local environments and communities, many of which are Indigenous. Mining has exacted a tremendous toll in Northern Manitoba, including acid mine drainage and large-scale contamination of water, soil, and wildlife; for example, an idled nickel mine near Snow Lake has been repeatedly fined for releasing radioactive effluent into Bucko Lake. There has also been significant community concern and resistance to proposed new silica sand mines near Hollow Water First Nation, Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, and in the RM of Springfield.

 

Personal Electric Vehicles Are One of the Largest Critical Minerals Demand Sources

It’s important to recognize that some energy transition pathways use far less mined materials than others. As political scientist Thea Riofrancos put it in her recent book, Extraction: “Policies that promote alternatives to car use, reduce sprawl, encourage more compact batteries, and require recycling would all reduce the scale of mining needed for carbon-free transportation.”

Personal electric vehicles are significantly more energy efficient than conventional gasoline- or diesel-powered cars. However, they are extremely resource-intensive to manufacture, especially for the batteries that power them; increases in battery sizes due to vehicle type and “range anxiety” have further compounded this issue. The World Trade Organization has reported: “Critical minerals are particularly in demand for the production of batteries for electric cars, with each battery requiring as much as 200kg of critical minerals.”

Take lithium, for example. A 2023 study projected that full electrification of passenger vehicles in the US with medium-sized (70 kWh) batteries would require about 280,000 tonnes of lithium by 2050; by comparison, the “optimistic” scenario of reduced vehicle ownership rates would cut this quantity to 90,000 tonnes, and the “best case” scenario of smaller (35 kWh) EV batteries with reduced vehicle ownership and widespread battery recycling would only use 35,000 tonnes.

 

Manitoba Can Focus on Battery Storage, Electric Buses, and Renewable Power Over EVs

The point isn’t that there shouldn’t be an electrification of personal vehicles at all. EVs will likely play a key role for people where alternatives don’t exist, such as rural residents and trades workers. EVs can also be helpfully integrated into the grid as “Virtual Power Plants” and managed charging approaches that harness small-scale battery storage to improve grid flexibility and reliability.

But the demand for critical minerals can be significantly reduced if EVs are not the main focus of a transition strategy, but instead emphasize enabling less car dependency through density and public and active transit, for example. This would allow critical minerals to instead be prioritized for uses like wind turbines and solar panels, grid-scale battery storage and transmission lines, and electric buses and e-bikes.

For instance, it would require about 2,000 MWh of battery capacity to install a large amount of grid-scale battery storage and electrify all transit buses in Manitoba. By comparison, electrifying all 850,000 passenger vehicles in Manitoba would require at least 50,000 MWh of battery capacity—and likely considerably more given the popularity of larger vehicles. Reducing car dependency would greatly help limit mining pressures and reduce total electricity demand (as transit vehicles are far more energy-efficient).

 

Critical Minerals Should be Prioritized for Climate Solutions Over Military and AI

EVs aren’t the only sector where demand for critical minerals can be reduced. Military hardware such as fighter jets, tanks, and missiles consumes a huge amount of raw materials, and NATO has identified aluminum, graphite, and cobalt as essential to its “technological edge and operational readiness.” As exemplified by recent reports of the U.S. Department of War (formerly Defense) stockpiling large quantities of critical minerals, such uses divert crucial materials from decarbonization efforts. Expanding mining, with its destructive environmental and socioeconomic effects, in order to build weapons that solely exist to kill and destroy, represents the opposite of sustainability.

 The same goes for the global explosive growth in data centres, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrency. These facilities are extremely energy-intensive, adding massive new loads to existing grids and requiring new fossil-fuelled generating capacity. They also consume massive amounts of fresh water and require an enormous amount of copper and other metals to build. Once again, these investments use critical minerals that could instead be directed to alternative applications that would reduce emissions, create good jobs, and improve affordability for Manitobans.

Renewable Technologies Can Be Repaired, Repowered, and Recycled

Another means by which demand for critical minerals can be managed is through greater prioritization of repairing and refurbishing resource-intensive technologies like wind turbines and batteries, along with eventual recycling and re-use of their materials. This work must also align with a broader imperative to reduce demand, including through efforts such as right to repair and digital sovereignty.

Repairing

Regular maintenance, reconditioning, and replacement of components can prolong their lifespans well beyond original expectations, with big implications for mining. Tansy Robertson-Fall of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation writes that “extending the life of a 500 megawatt wind farm by 10 years could over the course of a century reduce demand for copper alone by around 4,400 tonnes.” New technologies like drones are making it easier to conduct inspections and monitor turbines, enabling issues to be identified before they result in major damage or even failures.

Repowering

“Repowering” older wind and solar farms is a more extensive process that replaces entire systems at the end of their lifespans with newer, updated technologies, such as larger, more powerful turbines. While many of these overhauls require new materials like steel, copper, and solar glass, they can leverage existing infrastructure including roads, foundations, mounts, and transmission lines to reduce total requirements, including non-critical but high-volume inputs like aggregate and cement (and limit new land-use impacts as well). Importantly, repowering wind and solar farms often increases electricity generation.

There are also many burgeoning solutions for reusing products at the end of their life. For example, used EV batteries are increasingly being redeployed as battery energy storage, including for long-duration energy storage, while retired wind turbine blades can be repurposed for pedestrian bridges and park benches. Old solar panels may also have applications in small-scale projects, such as on-farm generation.

Recycling

While it won’t help much with the initial round of mining required for large-scale electrification, expanding recycling infrastructure can significantly curb future extraction requirements and the problem of electronic waste. Between 85% and 95% of the mass of solar panels, wind turbines, and lithium-ion batteries is recyclable. However, the International Energy Agency reports that “the use of recycled materials has so far failed to keep pace with rising material consumption.” Recycling of lithium-ion batteries, for example, remains low due to “inefficient and inconsistent collection systems and limited recycling infrastructure.”

New facilities and innovations are starting to address these problems; improving product design to facilitate disassembly and increasing the use of “digital passports” that store information about materials and product recyclability will further support such efforts. However, much more scaling up will be required to meaningfully reduce e-waste and mining pressures. To advance this aim, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs recently advised: “Strong regulatory frameworks are critical to promote responsible recycling, enforce environmental standards, and ensure fair distribution of economic benefits.”

Recycling is undoubtedly preferable to simply wasting materials; however, it remains highly complex, expensive, and energy-intensive, and has many environmental impacts of its own, including the production of toxic outputs such as air pollution, wastewater, ash, and residual waste. Because of this, the priority should remain on reducing demand as much as possible.

Conclusion: Using Critical Minerals as Efficiently and Effectively as Possible

It’s inevitable that some mining will be required for Manitoba’s and Canada’s energy transition. Wind turbines, solar panels, battery storage, transmission lines, and electric buses can’t be built without such materials—and failing to build such infrastructure will mean that the far more expansive and nightmarish extraction of fossil fuels will continue. Given the potentially catastrophic impacts of mining on environments and communities—exemplified by the Mount Polley mine tailings disaster of 2014—this is far from an ideal set of options.

Exploration and mining must only occur if the constitutional duty to consult Indigenous peoples and the heightened standard of free, prior, and informed consent have been met. Further, as outlined in a recent report by the Canadian Climate Institute, the environmental risks of mining should be addressed through far stronger regulations and enforcement of the sector, along with the considerable expansion of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and Indigenous Guardians programs.

At the same time, the demand for critical minerals needs to be significantly curtailed through the prioritizing of public transit and denser cities, limiting or excluding military and AI uses, and scaling up reuse, repair, repowering, and recycling of everything else, including renewable technologies themselves. These measures will not solve the issues posed by critical minerals, but they will lessen mining impacts and ensure that materials are used in the most effective and efficient way possible.

Further Resources