COVID-19 was the straw that broke globalization’s back.
Since the 1970’s, we were living in a world where we thought that all we had to do to improve our standards of living was to have our goods manufactured in low-manpower-cost countries. Then we realized that in a chain of manufacturing process, rupture of the weakest link makes the chain collapse, and the longer the chain, the higher the risk of rupture, especially if this link is located far away. Add the awareness about the carbon footprint of shipping, the ESG culture, the electrification of everything, and geopolitical turmoil, and here we are facing the perfect wake-up call. Manufacturing for the developed world shall be brought back close to market in dependable jurisdictions. Et voilà, the largest industrialization in North America since the Second World War is on its way!
When China joined the WTO in 2001 they understood the need to control access to mineral and metals to secure their manufacturing and export-driven economic model. Then it became the mining behemoth who now destabilizes the occidental industrial foundations. All this led to the realization of the criticality of a domestic mineral supply chain. Not because mining is of exceptional profitability, but because unsecured access to resources threatens the entire economic system.
Québec, a critical player
Québec, with its diverse geology, is broadly endowed with mineral resources. With access to abundant clean energy, extensive infrastructure, skilled labour, and proximity to North American manufacturing hubs, Québec has everything it needs to be a mining powerhouse. Then, add the political will, since both provincial and federal governments addressed the supply chain criticality by providing massive incentives to build a robust battery manufacturing ecosystem.
Not so long ago, the Canadian automotive industry was facing existential threats due to southward migration of the U.S. base manufacturing and the conversion to EV manufacturing was seen as its salvation board. Announcements of billions of dollars of investments in battery manufacturing cascaded with Northvolt, Lithion Technology, EcoPro (Ford Motor), Ultium (GM-Posco), Nemaska Lithium, Nouveau-Monde Graphite, Sayona, Micro Bird (Girardin), Lion Électrique, Nova Bus, Demers Ambulances, BRP, Motec, RAQ, Calogy Solutions, Volta, SysNergie, Bleu Solutions, Nano One, Ecotuned Automobile, and so on… It is now anticipated that 28 per cent of cathodes made in America will come from Québec, supplying Ontario’s automotive industry. It is now too big to fail!
However, manufacturing needs raw material whose market is not only shaped by geopolitical constraints, but driven by pricing and competitiveness. A significant portion of pricing comes from transportation and energy costs. For example, graphite for anode manufacturing is currently sourced from China, but the shipping cost from China to Bécancour adds about 20 per cent to the purchasing cost, plus customs, tariffs, broker fees, etc. Hence stands the opportunity to develop domestic production and Québec has the required mineral endowment and dynamism to fulfil such ambitions.
Investments in project development or mineral exploration in Québec neared $1 billion per year since 2021, about a third of which is dedicated to critical minerals. Lithium alone accounted for 15 per cent of the expenditures. Investments were made by producers, (Sayona’s NAL and Nemaska Lithium’s Wabouchi), developers with advanced projects (Sayona’s Authier, Arcadium’s James Bay, Critical Elements’s Rose, etc.) or resource definition projects (Patriot Battery Metals, Winsome, Sayona’s Moblan, Cygnus Metals) and explorers with a wide array of early-stage projects fueled by recent discoveries.
A similar enthusiasm is noted for graphite (Northern Graphite, Nouveau-Monde, Focus Graphite, Lomiko Metals, Canada Carbon, etc.), phosphate (Arianne Phosphates, First Phosphate), niobium (Niobay Minerals), rare earths (Torngat Metals, Geomega, etc), nickel (Dumont), scandium (Rio Tinto, Imperial Mining), vanadium (Vanadium Corp., Blackrock Metals, Voyager Metals), to name only a few. Québec’s attractiveness for mineral explorer is undisputed.
IOS Geosciences, a critical partner
Since its incorporation in 1992, IOS Geosciences has been involved in almost 1,800 mineral exploration projects, the vast majority of which are located in Québec. Not being based in the gold-rich Abitibi, most of IOS’s work has been dedicated to base metal and industrial minerals, now collectively labelled as “critical minerals”. This involvement ranged from a simple petrographic study to drill program management to feasibility study management, dealing with a vast panoply of commodities such as lithium, graphite, uranium, titanium, vanadium, phosphate, iron, niobium, nickel, etc. Being an independent consulting group with a broad expertise and vast operational capacities, this pool of experience is a critical component of the exploration ecosystem.
Québec is a distinctive jurisdiction in the Canadian mosaic. The rules are different, the culture is different, and people think differently. Québec has a reputation for red-taping and contorted social acceptability, which, to our opinion is not a hindrance as long as you understand how it is working. Québec is just different, and understanding these differences is critical to successful project development. A strategic partner that understands the ecosystem, the permitting process, and the social sensitivity is a key component of a successful or efficient exploration project. Such is the approach IOS offers to mineral explorers coming to Québec: turnkey services that provide the intelligence to fast track and de-risk the project in the early years. Such an example is we ran Cygnus Metal, an Australian explorer’s drill program that went from the first foot in Québec to resource estimate in eight months!
Operating exploration projects in remote locations requires a specific set of skills, especially when dealing with less common commodities. Lack of experience can be costly, and such expertise takes years to acquire. A simple error on assaying procedure or a misstep in regards to community relation may totally derail a project. IOS is built on more than 30 years of experience, in which it developed operation readiness and capabilities. It works as a synergistic team made of seasoned geologists, engineers, biologists, technicians, labourers, cooks, mechanics, etc., owning its equipment and infrastructures, and forming a coherent pool of expertise. Availability of such operational structure provides a kick-booster to its clients’ projects. The impact of such expertise can be seen in the development of Focus Graphite’s Lac Knife project. When it started in 2010, there was no suitable reference material available for analytical control, due to carbon speciation. The issue was noticed beforehand, and a reference material was manufactured in our facility and sent for certification in several labs across Canada. This material is now used to benchmark several other projects in the province.
Another example is in regards to uranium exploration, an utmost regulated and sensitive industry that has been in doldrums since the mid-2000s. Back then, IOS was involved in most uranium projects in Québec and managed to maintain its expertise since then. Since there has been virtually no uranium exploration since late 2000, any service group that came into activity since then just doesn’t have any such critical expertise.
In parallel to its operational capabilities, IOS is rooted in quality of work and pragmatism. It fosters a culture of scientific rigour that instills resourcefulness, which led to a reputation of innovation enablers. Ten years ago, we were a precursor in AI targeting methods using Bayesian logics. The group also operates a world-renowned applied mineralogy and geometallurgical laboratory, servicing both mineral exploration and the mining industry. Our proprietary automated gold grain and indicator mineral counting technology, ARTGold® and ARTMin, are now deployed globally and were adopted by several multinational players. Our automated petrography tool finds applications in the geometallurgy and geoenvironment of critical minerals. Similarly, the team developed a unique approach to exploration geochemistry, enabling de-noising of the survey and robust anomaly selection. This collaborative approach is reflected by the numerous referred scientific publications, the number of talks in conventions and symposiums, the recurrent short-courses and training it offers, as well as its long-lasting collaboration with academia.
IOS Geoscience has a long-term vision: to be a beacon of reliability for the industry. This is a long-term commitment that was recently enshrined in an ongoing management buy-out. We are working with some clients for more than 30 years and are poised to continue so for the next 30 years.
