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The federal government is providing $6 million in funding to support the Saskatchewan Research Council’s rare earth elements processing facility in Saskatoon.
Dan Vandal, the federal minister responsible for the PrairiesCan economic development agency, announced the investment Thursday at SRC’s facility in the Bridge City.
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“Our government is seizing opportunities to invest in a strong, sustainable future for all Canadians, while supporting our regional strengths like mining, exploration, and mineral processing,” Vandal said.
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“Saskatchewan’s leadership in this sector will help establish a domestic rare earth supply chain that adds value to our economy and creates good jobs for Canadians.”
The funding will go to support SRC in setting up and commercializing a process to separate rare earth oxides from radioactive tailings generated from producing monazite, a group of minerals containing rare earth elements, which are useful in a host of applications, including electric vehicles and wind power turbines.
SRC’s monazite processing operation is projected to produce enough rare earth elements to manufacture up to 65,000 electric vehicles every year.
Some of the funding will also be used to develop an automated smelting process to make commercial-grade rare earth metals.
The federal dollars will help the SRC produce more rare earth elements while “doing it quicker, safer and with less demand on manual labour,” Saskatchewan Research Council president and CEO Mike Crabtree said.
SRC has received $71 million in funding from the province in recent years to set up the processing facility. Jeremy Harrison, the provincial minister who oversees SRC, welcomed the latest funding from the feds, saying it helps the provincial Crown corporation continue to “break new ground” in the rare earth sector, and establish “a rare earth hub” in the province.
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