Canada will spend $1.6 billion to accelerate the production and processing of a critical mineral used for electric vehicle batteries. Two senior government sources said as reported by Reuters.
The budget will be out on Thursday and will be used to improve processing for extraction of essential minerals for the production of electric vehicle batteries such as nickel, lithium, cobalt and magnesium.
Canada last month announced financial support for the construction of an electric vehicle battery production facility, but no deal has yet been announced for the extraction or refining of minerals.
Canada has many important valuable mineral deposits. With the right investments, this sector can create thousands of new jobs and grow the economy.
Canada is known to have a large mining sector, having a multi-billion dollar fund set up to invest in green technology.
Mineral demand for electric vehicle batteries, such as lithium and cobalt, will be 500% by 2050, according to World Bank forecasts. Today Asia, and particularly China, dominates the global production and processing of the essential minerals, rare earths and rare metals used to make electric vehicle batteries.
This mineral strategy is expected to help lower the price of electric vehicles in the market. Last month, the increase in raw materials prompted most electric vehicle manufacturers to raise the prices of their electric vehicles.
