Minerals and the economy

Canada is recognized as a leading mining nation. Our minerals sector, which includes exploration, mining and related support activities, primary processing, and downstream product manufacturing, is a mainstay of the economy that supports jobs and economic activity in every region.

Find out what Canada is doing to advance the economy through minerals

Critical minerals

Canada is primed to capitalize on the rising global demand for critical minerals and materials that will power the clean energy transition and advanced manufacturing. Canada is a key global producer of copper, nickel and cobalt and hosts advanced mineral projects for rare earth elements, lithium, graphite and vanadium. Canada plans to leverage its strong environmental, social and good governance credentials, and mining prowess. The intent is to create competitive supply chains for critical minerals and value-added products, processes and technologies. The products, processes and technologies range from zero emission vehicles (including Li-ion batteries, permanent magnets and speciality alloys) to wind turbines and hydrogen fuel cells, to information and communication technologies (including semi-conductors).

For more information: Critical minerals

Greenhouse gas emissions and advanced green technologies

Developing Canada's minerals sector in clean and sustainable ways will ensure that it can continue to contribute to the Canadian economy for years to come.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Canadian mines have relatively low intensities of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across a range of commodities. Canada’s carbon competitiveness stems from a host of advantages, including access to clean energy sources and significant investments in research, development and adoption of green technologies. Canadian mines and processing facilities continue to invest to lower their emissions through electrification of equipment and vehicle fleets and through the development of new technologies. This includes mines in remote off-grid locations that have few alternative energy sources. Some of these remote sites have chosen to install wind turbines to reduce their dependency on diesel fuel.

Advanced green technologies

The Green Mining Initiative, led by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), aims to further improve the minerals sector's environmental performance and create green technology opportunities. NRCan works in close partnership with provincial and territorial governments, industry, academia, non-governmental organizations and other interested stakeholders, such as the Canada Mining Innovation Council.

Learn more about green mining innovation.

Mineral production

Canada is the global leader in the production of potash and ranks among the top five global producers for diamonds, gemstones, gold, indium, niobium, platinum group metals, titanium concentrate and uranium.

Canada is also the world’s fourth-largest primary aluminum producer.

Mineral production by commodity group

The 2020 value of Canadian mineral production was $43.9 billion, 8.1% lower than the 2019 value of $47.7 billion. Metals’ value of production decreased slightly by 1.4% from the previous year, while non-metals and coal declined 13.4% and 29.6%, respectively.

Canada's top five mineral products by value for 2020 were gold, iron ore, coal, copper and potash. Their combined value was $29.5 billion, accounting for two thirds of the total value of mineral production.

Canada's mineral production by province and territory

Minerals are produced in every province and territory. Four provinces, Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan, accounted for over three quarters of Canada's total value of mineral production in 2020.

Service suppliers

Canadian cities provide regional bases for supporting exploration, mining and allied industries through specialized equipment and service suppliers. Large urban areas, such as Toronto and Vancouver, are also recognized as global hubs for mining and mineral exploration, financing and legal services.

Thousands of firms in Canada are available to provide technical, legal, financial, accounting, environmental and other expertise to the exploration and mining industry.

Transportation plays a key enabling role for the minerals sector, not only in delivering mineral products to markets, but also in bringing equipment and supplies to mining operations. The transportation industries benefit from a vibrant mining sector – such as rail – because mining accounts for over half of Canada's rail-freight tonnage annually.

Learn more about Canadian mineral production.

Principal mineral areas, producing mines, and oil and gas fields in Canada

This map displays the locations of significant metallic, non-metallic and industrial mineral mines; oil sands mines; and gas fields across Canada.

Learn more about the available mining and minerals maps.

Mineral exploration

Mineral exploration is the search for materials in the Earth's crust, where concentration and quantity allow for extraction and processing at a profit.

The amount spent on mineral exploration and on deposit appraisal activity depends largely on market conditions and commodity prices. Over the last decade, mineral and metal prices fluctuated significantly, reaching a cyclical peak in 2011 that was driven by rapid growth in China and other emerging market economies. Prices subsequently decreased as supply outpaced demand.

Prices began to recover later in 2016, a trend that continued into the last half of 2019, but shifted for most metals in early 2020 because of the economic lockdowns implemented in response to the COVID‑19 pandemic. Metal prices recovered later in 2020 as supply diminished and demand recovered.

Mineral exploration by commodity

Canada benefits from a diversified mineral endowment that includes traditional commodities, such as gold, base metals and diamonds. As well, Canada has commodities used in clean energy applications and advanced technologies, such as rare earth elements, graphite and lithium.

Precious metals, particularly gold, remained the leading target for exploration spending ($1.4billion), which represents a 15% increase over the previous year and accounts for 65.3% of total spending in 2020.

Mineral exploration by province and territory

In 2020, Ontario was the leading jurisdiction in terms of spending on mineral exploration, followed by Quebec and British Columbia. These three jurisdictions accounted for 74% of total exploration and deposit appraisal expenditures.

Mineral exploration by company type

Two types of companies work in mineral exploration:

• Senior companies normally derive recurring operating revenues from mining or other business segments. These are not necessarily mining companies.
• Junior companies have no internally generated revenue (i.e. they do not have an operating mine) and rely mostly on equity markets to raise the capital necessary to conduct their exploration programs.

Junior mining companies tend to specialize in early-stage exploration activities, while senior companies are more likely to bring mines into production.

Junior companies play a critical role in the discovery and advancement of mineral projects in Canada, projects that represent the next generation of Canadian mines. In 2020, junior mining companies spent $1,029 million on exploration and deposit appraisal activities, a 7.5% increase over 2019. Senior company expenditures declined 20% from 2019.

Learn more about Canadian mineral exploration.

Canadian mining assets

Canadian exploration and mining companies are active across the globe. The extent of their presence can be determined by examining the value and location of Canadian mining assets.

In 2019, the total value of Canadian mining assets decreased by 1% from the previous year, with the portion located in Canada decreasing by 7%. The decrease in Canada was due primarily to the acquisition of Goldcorp by U.S.-based Newmont Corporation. Outside of Canada, the value of Canadian mining assets increased by 2%.

Canada's presence abroad

In 2019, 67% of the value of Canadian mining assets abroad were in the Americas, where the value of assets decreased 5% from the previous year. Oceania experienced the greatest decline in percentage terms (-11.6%) in 2019. The value of Canada’s 2019 mining assets in Africa increased by 44% because of the acquisition by Barrick Gold of U.S-based Randgold Resources, which owned several mines in Africa. In total, $178 billion in assets was located in almost 100 foreign countries in 2019. The top 10 countries are presented in the following table.

Learn more about the global presence of Canadian mining companies.

Indigenous participation

NRCan’s Lands and Minerals sector is committed to promoting Indigenous participation in mineral exploration and mining activities by sharing information to support informed decision-making that builds partnerships and promotes community capacity building.

Indigenous representation in the minerals sector has increased in the last decade, especially in the mining industry.

Learn more about our tools and information products on Indigenous participation in exploration and mining.

Indigenous employment

In 2016, over 16,500 Indigenous people were employed in Canada's mining and mineral processing industries. Over half of the Indigenous employment was in the upstream mining subsector, where Indigenous people accounted for 12% of the industry's labour force, more than double the all-industry average representation of 4% and up from 8% in 2011.

Agreements between companies and Indigenous peoples

Agreements between mineral exploration and mining companies and Indigenous communities or governments have helped secure benefits for many Indigenous communities and businesses and improved certainty for exploration and mining companies. Fostering the relationship between industry and Indigenous businesses builds the capacity for Indigenous businesses to capitalize on economic opportunities happening in or near their communities. It also allows industry to create reliable, local supply chains and the social licence to operate in a community.

More than 571 agreements (active and expired agreements at the exploration, development and post-development stages) for 379 exploration and mining projects, have been signed since 1974. Approximately 412 of these agreements were still active in 2020. More than half of the active agreements are in Ontario (137) and British Columbia (93). Between 2006 and 2019, the number of exploration-stage agreements that were signed doubled. Furthermore, there has been an increase in agreements for exploration, development and post-development stages:

• 51 prior to 2000
• 501 between 2000 and 2020

The increase is due to both a higher level of exploration and mining activity and a growing focus on building mutual understanding between Indigenous communities and the mining industry. However, for the past few years, there have been fewer agreements for exploration, development and post-development stages with the reduced number of projects.

Nominal GDP in the minerals sector

In 2020, the direct contribution of Canada's minerals and metals sector to Canada's gross domestic product (GDP) was $70 billion, which represented 3% of Canada's total GDP. The indirect effects from the minerals and metals sector added a further $37 billion to the GDP, for a total contribution of $107 billion.

Employment in Canada's minerals sector

The minerals sector offers well-paid, high-quality jobs for Canadians across the country, including many in northern and remote locations.

In 2020, the minerals and metals sector directly employed 377,000 individuals and indirectly employed an additional 315,000, for a total of 692,000 individuals.

At $127,300, the average annual total compensation per job in the mining industry is twice the all-industry average of $68,759.

Learn more about the employment in the minerals sector.

Learn more about the employment in the minerals sector.

Financing

The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) are the world's primary listing venues for mining and mineral exploration companies, with more than 1,160 issuers in 2020, accounting for 43% of global listings.

In 2020, over a third ($7.5 billion) of the world's total equity capital for these activities was raised by companies listed on the TSX or TSXV, which also accounted for 49% of the number of mining equity financings for mineral exploration and mining globally. Canada is number one globally in equity financing raised for mining and mineral exploration.

Government revenues

From 2015 to 2019, the mining and select manufacturing sectors (mining and quarrying, primary metal manufacturing and non-metallic mineral product manufacturing) paid an average of $2.4 billion in corporate income taxes and royalties annually. Mining taxes and royalties account for 63% of that amount, while the remainder is paid in the form of corporate income taxes to the federal, provincial and territorial governments.

Read more on taxes relevant to the minerals and metals industries.

Trade

In 2020, Canada's mineral imports and exports, which include ores, concentrates, and semi- and final-fabricated mineral products, recorded a balance of trade of over $15.7 billion.

Exports

Valued at $102.6 billion in 2020, domestic mineral exports accounted for 21% of Canada's total merchandise exports.

Learn more about Canada's mineral imports and exports.

Minerals sector investment

In 2020, the minerals sector invested $12.6 billion in new capital construction and in machinery and equipment, accounting for 5% of the Canadian total.

Learn more about capital investment by Canada's minerals sector.

Major natural resource projects

In 2020, current and potential investment in major mining-related projects (e.g., mine constructions, redevelopments, expansions and processing facilities) over the next 10 years was estimated at $82 billion in capital expenditures, across 120 projects, compared with $80 billion and 114 projects in 2019.

Learn more about major natural resource projects that are planned and under construction over the next 10 years.