The federal government’s likely blocking of the foreign takeover of Teck Resources, writes David Olive, would achieve nothing for Canada’s goal to increase production of the materials we need to decarbonize our economy.
There is a growing likelihood that Ottawa will block the foreign takeover of Teck Resources Ltd., a diversified mining company based in Vancouver. But that would achieve nothing for Canada in our goal to increase production of critical minerals to decarbonize economies in the fight against climate change.
What is required of Canada is that we extract more critical minerals from the ground. And that we build more processing facilities — refineries, smelters, and the like — to turn those minerals into the refined components that go into smartphones, electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines, solar panels, and upgraded electricity grids.
The Teck takeover attempt is simply part of global mining’s latest consolidation drive. The $65 billion (U.S.) spent this year on global mining takeovers, about double the amount spent by this point last year, is an exercise in asset shuffling. It will not increase minerals production.
The stakes are high. The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) expects demand for copper, cobalt, nickel, lithium, graphite, and other critical minerals to at least double by 2040.
For the rest of this article: https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2023/05/04/why-is-ottawa-playing-games-in-the-takeover-fight-for-teck-resources-and-the-future-of-the-critical-minerals-we-need.html