Skip to main content

Mining and the

Low-Carbon Future

To achieve the Paris Agreement’s climate targets, the world needs minerals and metals. Without them, decarbonizing the global economy and achieving net zero is impossible.

BC has the minerals and metals the world needs to transition to a lower carbon economy.

The world must rapidly build clean energy technologies and infrastructure to confront climate change. This means building more wind turbines and solar farms and enhancing our electricity grids. It means transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs) and building batteries and charging infrastructure to support them.

All of these clean technologies require enormous amounts of minerals and metals. In British Columbia, we produce many of the minerals and metals necessary for the energy transition.

BC is:

  • Canada’s largest producer of copper – essential for electric vehicles and recognized as a key ‘electrification metal’ for its widespread use in clean technologies.
  • Canada’s top producer of steelmaking coal – crucial for clean energy infrastructure like wind turbines.
  • The second largest Canadian producer of silver – vital for solar panels.

BC’s mining industry produces other important or “critical” minerals including aluminum, antimony, bismuth, germanium, indium, lead, molybdenum, tellurium, and zinc.

The world needs more of British Columbia’s low carbon minerals and metals.

According to the International Energy Agency, meeting the growing demand for minerals and metals is mission critical. Up to six times more minerals and metals will be needed by 2040 to accelerate the energy transition and meet the Paris Agreement’s 2050 climate targets.

With an abundance of critical minerals and metals, British Columbia has an outsized opportunity to support the energy transition and make a significant contribution to climate action.