The Canadian government recently announced $10 billion in tax credits for clean technology, mining project approval improvements, innovation research and industry training announced in the federal government’s Fall 2022 economic update.
Ottawa has created $6.7 billion in tax credits over five years for up to 30% of investments in clean technologies such as battery storage, electric industrial vehicles and small nuclear reactors, according to the Liberal government’s fall economic statement issued November 17.
It also gives $1.28 billion over six years to federal departments such as the Impact Assessment Agency, to speed the project approvals process, $962.2 million over eight years to modernise the National Research Council, and $802.1 million over three years for a youth employment and skills program.
This funding is meant to help the Canadian mining industry as it is facing some of its biggest challenges; how does it meet the material needs of the energy transition while operating in a sustainable way with scarce resources.
“We have the natural resources to power the global green transition and to support our allies with their energy security as that transition continues to pick up speed.” – Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
According to McKinsey, the mining process, from exploration to operation, is highly energy-intensive. It consumes 10% of the world’s energy production, hindering net-zero ambitions and causing significant environmental impact from land-use change.
It is going to take new approaches and technologies in order to get the metals required for renewable technology while addressing the industry’s impacts.
But according to Wood McKenzie, the mining industry is risk-averse, which has been neglected as a platform for innovation, private investment and slow to adopt innovative solutions due to the scale of safety, operational, technical and social challenges.
How does the Canadian mining industry find the next generation of innovative companies?
Building a Mining Innovation Ecosystem in Canada
Most innovations come from inventions and advances of science and technology, but innovating is more than that. To truly innovate is to bring to the market new products and services that meet the needs of potential customers and that they are willing to buy.
Therefore, the business of innovation is different from invention. Inventors typically do not pay much attention to the market stage of its ideas, but the evidence shows that it is essential in terms of turning research and technology into profitable business solutions.
The Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator Network was created on July 9, 2021 through an investment of $40 million from the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund. MICA is a $112.4 million pan-Canadian initiative that brings together stakeholders from a wide range of fields to accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative technologies to make the mining sector more productive and sustainable.
MICA is a $112.4 million pan-Canadian initiative that brings together stakeholders from a wide range of fields to accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative technologies to make the mining sector more productive and sustainable.
Members come from across Canada and the projects span four technical themes of MICA:
- Increase Mine Production Capacity, at Lower Cost
- Reduce Mining Energy Consumption and GHG Emissions
- Implement Smart, Autonomous Mining Systems
- Reduce Environmental Risk and Long-Term Liabilities
It is this criteria that goes into the selection of companies that receive funding. On Nov. 14, a group of mining industry professionals, academics, government representatives and entrepreneurs met in downtown Toronto to announce over $11.5 million of investment in 16 projects with a total project value of over $39 million.
| Company Name | Description | Funding Received |
| PYTHEAS AI INC. | Underground Positioning System and its Application for Autonomous, Automation and Mining Safety | $648,883.00 |
| Extract Energy | Capture and conversion of Mining Low-Grade Waste Heat | $1,099,348.00 |
| Mira Geoscience Ltd | 4D Data Integration for Mining | $476,643.00 |
| Ambra Solution Inc | Intelligent Positioning System | $521,544.0 |
| ABCDust Technologies Corp | Smart Customized Dust Control & Soil Stabilization Solutions Pilot Plant and Industrialization facility | $726,948.00 |
| H2nanO Incorporated | Passive Sunlight Treatment for Managing Mining Process Water Risks | $315,780.00 |
| waterStrider Treatment Inc. | Amprey Removal of Dissolved Metals from Mine Water | $1,263,861.00 |
| Copperstone Technologies Ltd | HELIX Saturn: Amphibious Rover for Geotechnical Surveying of Tailings Storage Facilities | $1,194,568.00 |
| Cheetah Networks Inc | Visualization of Network Analytics in a Mine | $456,914.00 |
| NTWIST Inc | Smart Comminution in Mineral Processing | $487,123.00 |
| Destiny Copper Inc | Destiny Code Green | $835,579.00 |
| Rithmik Solutions Ltd. | Equipment Doctor | $577,834.00 |
| EnviroMetal Technologies Inc. | Gold Recovery Circuit Pilot | $1,743,000.00 |
| Goldspot Discoveries Corp | Machine Vision for Geological Knowledge Extraction | $862,670.04 |
| Centre for Innovation in Mineral Resource Engineering | Multimodal Sensing System for Improved Productivity and Safety in Cave Mines | $108,158.00 |
| Linnovative Solutions | Creates software solution for mining companies | $279,940.00 |
| Total | $11,598,793.04 |
MICA received 106 initial projects for its first intake from 81 MICA members. These projects requested more than $100M from the available $30M MICA fund. The network plans on its second call for proposals from companies which will see an additional amount of up to $18M of investment distributed to applicants.
Mining and Innovation
The first commercial use of a steam engine was for pumping water from mines in the 1700s. Alfred Nobel’s dynamite was quickly adopted in the mining industry after its invention in the late 1800s. This is also the case of energy generation technologies applied to new infrastructures, such as dams and power plants to power remote mining operations.
With more than $15 billion in investments over the past 10 months from critical mineral mining and processing to battery component manufacturing, electric vehicle production and the country’s first gigafactory, Canada is positioning itself for the next generation of technology and development.
Who knows…maybe this generation will see the first small nuclear reactor power a remote mine or a special chemical process will turn a mine’s waste into more metals?
NewsMiner 
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