OTTAWA — The future of Canada’s mining industry depends on extracting valuable minerals from increasingly difficult sources, according to a briefing note prepared last fall for Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, and miners—especially in the critical-minerals sector—ought to be looking to space for help.

Its investments in the effort are dwarfed by those of other countries, though, including tiny Luxembourg.

The country’s mining outputs have been declining and discovery costs have increased, and long-term success depends on “using innovative technologies for improved operational and environmental performance,” says the briefing note, obtained by The Logic through an access-to-information request.

“As the minerals sector looks to capitalize on emerging opportunities, there is a convergence with the growing international space-resources industry,” it continues. “There is potential to generate solutions to shared operational challenges (e.g., eliminating waste, addressing energy needs and advancing automation and next-generation robotics).”

Natural Resources Canada has been trying to interest mining companies in that potential for years, the note said, with symposiums, summits and workshops. It’s sent people to panels at Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conventions. It has also shared expertise on mining with fledgling space companies that are keen on extraterrestrial opportunities but aren’t miners on Earth.

A 2021 consultants’ report prepared for the Canadian Space Agency argued that Canadian mining companies, accustomed to working in harsh conditions, are well positioned to help develop mining capabilities in space. Solutions invented for “space resources utilization,” as it’s called, might be useful for terrestrial mining innovation, the report said.

Major mining companies in Canada just weren’t interested—they had “difficulties understanding the added value that collaborating with the space industry for technology transfers could bring to their organization[s],” according to that report.

The October briefing suggests that miners of critical minerals, seeking to exploit smaller deposits from even tougher terrain, might see more value in technology crossovers from space exploration than established producers do.

Critical-mineral companies The Logic contacted appear only marginally more interested than the big players.

“At the moment we are focused on developing what we have in the ground,” wrote Tyrone Docherty, CEO of First Tellurium, in an email to The Logic. The company is hoping to develop a mine for gold, silver and tellurium (and is prospecting for tungsten) in the remote coastal mountains of B.C. southeast of Kitimat. Both tellurium and tungsten are on the federal government’s list of critical minerals. “From a corporate view,” wrote Docherty, “I would think that mining the oceans would make more sense than heading to outer space.”

“While mining in space is incredibly interesting, it is not something we are contemplating in the foreseeable future,” wrote Emily Robb, a spokesperson for Impala Canada. Impala currently mines palladium, another critical mineral, in northwestern Ontario.

Cost, distance, environmental concerns and lack of infrastructure have impeded dreams of mining vast reserves of critical minerals believed to be in the ground in Northern Ontario’s “Ring of Fire.”

“It’s not something we’re currently considering,” wrote Leanne Franco of Wyloo Metals, whose Canadian subsidiary Ring of Fire Metals aims to mine a site with nickel, copper, platinum and palladium.

The Logic asked Wilkinson’s office whether the minister has raised the potential crossover benefits of space mining with terrestrial critical-minerals companies.

“Leveraging Canada’s strengths and potential for cross-collaboration between industries will position both the mining and space industries to lead in the development of the high-tech, digital and cleaner mines of tomorrow,” wrote his spokesperson Michael MacDonald in an emailed response, not answering the question about whether Wilkinson has pushed the issue personally.

Other countries are well ahead, the briefing note says.

“International space partners (e.g., U.S. and Japan) are early movers on space resources, developing policy and regulatory frameworks, and investing in private industry to take advantage of an estimated $200-billion space resources market by 2050,” the note states. 

Luxembourg, which wants to be a space power, passed a law in 2017 allowing space mining, and has allocated €200 million to position itself as Europe’s space-mining hub.

Canada, in contrast, has allocated $1.75 million for concept studies on moon infrastructure and $10.3 million “to support the development of technologies targeting the lunar economy and participation in lunar-mission supply chains by 2024,” the note says.

Natural Resources Canada works with the CSA on space policy, and is looking forward to the results of a broad consultation the space agency ran on space-related regulations, MacDonald wrote. That closed April 4.

“Any potential future development of space resources (including policy, legislation, and regulations to enable industry involvement) is a strategic opportunity to demonstrate Canadian leadership in space exploration and mining, including pooling resources and know-how to make mining on Earth and in space more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable,” he wrote.