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

Green technologies and clean energy applications

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.

Advanced green technologies

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

Learn more about Green Mining Innovation.

Minerals and metals in clean energy applications

Canada is primed to respond to increased demand for both traditional and emerging commodities needed in the production of clean technology applications.

The country is a key global producer of copper, nickel and cobalt, and hosts a number of advanced mineral projects for rare earth elements, lithium and graphite. These commodities are crucial in the production of solar cells, high-density batteries and wind turbines.

Learn more about enabling clean energy applications.

Mineral production

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

Canada is also the world’s fourth largest primary aluminum producer from imported bauxite.

Mineral production by commodity group

The 2019 value of Canadian mineral production was $48.2 billion, 1.8% lower than the 2018 value of $49.1 billion. Metals value of production recorded a 2.5% increase in value over the previous year, while coal and non-metals declined 5.7% and 10.6%, respectively.

Canada's top five mineral products by value for 2019 were gold, coal, iron ore, potash and copper. Their combined value was $31.6 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. The top four provinces, Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan, accounted for over three-quarters of Canada's total value of mineral production in 2019.

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.

In 2019, more than 3,700 firms in Canada were 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—mostly rail, as 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.

Spending on mineral exploration and deposit appraisal activity depends largely on market conditions and commodity prices. Over the last decade, mineral and metal prices fluctuated significantly, reaching a historic high in 2011, which was followed by a period of decline that ended in 2016, when the prices of most precious and base metals began to rise again until halfway through 2018. Prices declined in the second half of 2018 but rose for most of 2019.

Mineral exploration by commodity

Canada benefits from a diversified mineral endowment that includes traditional commodities, such as gold, base metals and diamonds, as well as 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 ($1.2 billion), accounting for 57% of total spending in 2019

Base metals, coal and iron saw an increase in expenditures in 2019 by 6.3%, 8.3% and 13.0%, respectively. However, spending for precious metals, non-metals, and uranium declined by 22%, 25.1% and 4.1%, respectively. Spending for other metals, which includes cobalt and lithium, declined by half in 2019 as prices for these metals receded because of ample supply.

Mineral exploration by province and territory

In 2019, Ontario was the leading jurisdiction in terms of spending on mineral exploration, followed by Quebec and British Columbia. These three jurisdictions accounted for 61.3% 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 2019, junior mining companies spent $867 million on exploration and deposit appraisal activities, a 23% decrease over 2018. Senior company expenditures also declined 10% from 2018.

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 2018, the total value of Canadian mining assets increased by 4.0% from last year, with the portion located outside of Canada increasing by 3.6%.

Canada's presence abroad

In 2018, 72% of the value of Canadian mining assets abroad were in the Americas, where the value of assets increased 6.2% from the previous year. Asia experienced the greatest decline in percentage terms (-10.2%) in 2018. The overall value of Canada’s 2018 mining assets in Europe and Africa increased by 0.3% and 3.2%, respectively, while values in Oceania declined 0.9%.

In total, $174.4 billion in assets was located in 100 foreign countries in 2018. The top 10 countries are presented in the following table.

Learn more about the global presence of Canadian mining companies.

Indigenous participation

The Natural Resources Canada'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, while allowing industry to create reliable, local supply chains and the social licence to operate in a community.

More than 525 agreements (active and expired agreements at the exploration, development and post-development stages), for 356 exploration and mining projects, have been signed since 1974. Approximately 430 of these agreements were still active in 2019. More than half of the active agreements are in Ontario (141) and British Columbia (91). The number of exploration-stage agreements signed doubled between 2006 and 2019. Furthermore, there has been an overall increase in agreements for exploration, development and post-development stages, with:

• 51 prior to 2000
• 493 between 2000 and 2019

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 has been a steady decline in agreements for exploration, development and post-development stages with the reduced number of projects.

Nominal GDP in the minerals sector

In 2019, the direct contribution of Canada's minerals and metals sector to Canada's gross domestic product (GDP) was $71 billion, which represented 3.3% of Canada's total GDP. The indirect impacts from the minerals and metals sector added a further $38 billion to GDP, for a total impact of $109 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 2019, the minerals and metals sector directly employed 392,000 individuals and indirectly employed an additional 327,000, for a total of 719,000 individuals.

At $126,000, the average annual total compensation per job in the mining industry is twice the all-industry average of $63,000.

 

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 1,100 issuers in 2019, accounting for nearly 50% of global listings.

In 2019, over half ($12.5 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 48% 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 2014 to 2018, 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 65% of the value, 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 2019, Canada's mineral imports and exports, which include ores, concentrates, and semi- and final-fabricated mineral products, recorded a balance of trade of over $20.9 billion.

Exports

Valued at $106.1 billion in 2019, domestic mineral exports accounted for 19% of Canada's total merchandise exports.

Learn more about Canada's mineral imports and exports.

Minerals sector investment

In 2019, the minerals sector invested $14 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.