Critical Mineral Potential

Critical minerals are defined as minerals essential for sustainable economic growth, economic security, the renewable energy transition, and maintaining a reliable resource supply chain. The Canadian list of critical minerals was developed collaboratively by federal, provincial, and territorial governments in partnership with industry.

Canada's 2024 List of 34 Critical Minerals

Learn More About:

• Critical Minerals from Alberta Energy
• Critical Minerals List from Natural Resources Canada 

Alberta possesses significant geological diversity that underpins its potential for critical mineral development. While the province is traditionally recognized for its hydrocarbon resources, its mineral endowment includes a range of commodities essential for renewable energy technologies, advanced manufacturing, and defense applications. 

The table below summarizes the critical minerals with identified potential in the province and their key applications.
 

Lithium is a highly reactive metal with numerous modern technology applications, most notably in rechargeable batteries for portable electronics, electric vehicles, and residential or grid-scale energy storage systems. Additional uses include glass and ceramic additives, lubricants, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. In Alberta, lithium occurs primarily in two deposit types: lithium-rich formation brines and metalliferous black shales. There are also a few occurrences hosted in metasedimentary and granitic rocks of the Canadian Shield in northeastern Alberta.

Formation brine is saline water trapped within deep subsurface geological formations, typically associated with oil and gas reservoirs and often containing dissolved metals, including lithium. In Alberta, lithium-rich and potentially economically significant formation brines are widespread within Middle-Upper Devonian formations with other subsurface formations potentially becoming prospective with more data or improvements in extraction technology.

Metalliferous black shales in Alberta are known to be enriched in a wide variety of elements, including lithium. In the Birch Mountains region of Alberta, the Buckton deposit is hosted in the Cretaceous Labiche and the Second White Speckled formations.
 

Learn More About:

• Brine Geochemical Data
• Origin of Lithium and Other Alkali Metals in Devonian Brines of Alberta
• Lithium, Boron, and Strontium Isotopes in Fine-Grained Rocks from the Alberta Basin
• Lithium and Helium in Alberta
• Investigations of He and Li Resource Potential  

Image

Although helium is not technically a mineral resource, it is included on Canada’s Critical Minerals List owing to its strategic importance. Helium is a nonreactive gas widely used for supercooling applications, such as in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, and as an inert gas in various industrial processes.

Terrestrial helium is produced within the Earth’s crust through the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium, and it accumulates in porous reservoir rocks. However, helium requires a carrier gas, such as natural gas, carbon dioxide or nitrogen, to transport it from the source rock into the reservoir. As a result, some natural gas pools contain low concentrations of helium. During natural gas production, operators typically remove helium and other gases as waste during processing. However, when helium concentrations are sufficiently high, it can be economically extracted as a valuable product.

The oil and gas industry routinely analyzes constituent gases in wells and reports these data to the Alberta Energy Regulator. A review of this data indicates there are elevated helium values in Devonian, Permian, Carboniferous, and Triassic-aged strata, in particular in the Peace River Arch area. Elevated helium concentrations are also noted in Cambrian and Ordovician strata in southern Alberta, similar to formations hosting helium deposits in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Learn More About this Project:

• Helium Concentrations from Natural Gas Analysis
• Helium Concentrations from Natural Gas Analysis Digital Data
• Helium Data Relationships from Gas Analyses in Alberta
• Lithium and Helium in Alberta

Uranium in Alberta is found in four deposit types: 

• Unconformity-related
• Sandstone-hosted
• Metalliferous black shales
• Pegmatite- and granitoid-hosted

Of these deposit types, the unconformity-related uranium deposits, particularly in the Athabasca Basin in northeastern Alberta, are the most prospective. These deposits typically form close to unconformities between sandstone dominated formations above the unconformity, and basement rocks below. The deposits are also associated with faults or fracture zones. In Alberta, the Maybelle structural trend, located south of Lake Athabasca, is of particular interest. Here, steep fractures in sandstone host disseminated to massive, high-grade uraninite, along the unconformity at the base of the Fair Point Formation of the Athabasca Group. Exploration in this area has intersected intervals containing significant uranium mineralization, up to 17.7% U₃O₈ over 5 metres, including 54.5% U₃O₈ over 50 centimetres. Additional uranium occurrences are found along the north shore of Lake Athabasca where the Fair Point Formation outcrops, with samples averaging >5,000 parts per million (ppm) uranium.

Several sandstone-hosted uranium occurrences are present in southern Alberta, notably in the Willow Creek and St. Mary River formations. Although typically low-grade and low-tonnage, this style of deposit may be economically appealing due to the potential for in-situ leaching extraction methods.

Highly metalliferous black shales are enriched in a variety of critical minerals, including uranium. In Alberta, 94 occurrences of highly metalliferous black shales have been reported, with 39 containing over 50 ppm uranium. These shales are mainly found in formations such as Second White Specks, Labiche, Exshaw, and Loon River.

In northeastern Alberta, within the Canadian Shield, 171 uranium occurrences have been documented in pegmatites and granitoids. Structural features such as faults and shear zones play an important role in enhancing the uranium concentration within these lithologies. These structures act as conduits for fluid flow and metal mobilization, facilitating uranium enrichment in the host rock.
 

Image

Learn More About:

• Uranium Potential in Alberta
• Nature of Uranium Mineralization in the Oldman Radioactive Occurrence
• Geology of Uranium and Other Mineral Occurrences in the Andrew Lake Area
• Sandstone-Hosted Uranium in Southern Alberta: 2007 and 2008 Study Results
• Sandstone-Hosted Uranium in Southern Alberta: Petrographic Descriptions
• Sandstone-Hosted Uranium Potential of Southern Alberta Preliminary Assessment

Vanadium is primarily used in steel alloys, but emerging technologies such as vanadium redox batteries have been increasingly studied for long-term energy storage applications. Recent and ongoing research indicates that Alberta has economically significant vanadium enrichment, positioning the province to become a major vanadium producer through strategic development of this critical commodity from multiple sources. 

Prospective vanadium concentrations in Alberta occur in:

• oil sands (Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River oil sands regions)
• oolitic ironstone (Clear Hills deposit in northwestern Alberta)
• highly metalliferous black shales (Birch Mountains, Rocky Mountains and Foothills, and northwestern Alberta)

Heavy crude and bitumen typically contain elevated concentrations of sulphur and various metals, including vanadium, nickel, molybdenum, and rhenium, which are removed as contaminants during processing, refining, and upgrading. Based on 2017 production values, an estimated 34,000 to 39,000 tonnes of vanadium were concentrated annually through oil sands and in situ bitumen processing, primarily in petcoke and petcoke fly ash. Since 2017, in situ and surface production of bitumen has increased approximately 24%, suggesting that current vanadium concentration levels likely exceed these original estimates.
 

The Alberta Geological Survey is actively collecting and compiling data on oil sands and associated waste streams to improve public understanding of the distribution of vanadium and other critical elements within these geological and industrial waste materials.
 

Learn More About:

• Vanadium Potential in Alberta
• Vanadium and Nickel Potential in Alberta Bitumen and Bedrock 

Image

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) consist of the 15 lanthanide elements: lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), and lutetium (Lu). Scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y) are also typically grouped alongside the lanthanide REEs because of their similar physical and chemical properties.

These elements have diverse applications, including catalysts, ceramics, phosphors, strong magnets, alloys, and lasers. In Alberta, elevated concentrations of REEs have been identified in:

• highly metalliferous black shales of the Birch Mountains
• pegmatites and granitoids of the Canadian Shield
• sedimentary phosphate-bearing rocks of southwestern Alberta 

The Alberta Geological Survey is actively investigating REE occurrences from non-traditional sources such as oil sands, coal-bearing strata, and waste streams associated with the processing of these materials. A conservative estimate based on 2024 oil sands production levels suggests that 43,400 to 72,400 tonnes per year of REE-bearing monazite are concentrated in oil sands mine tailings. Additionally, these tailings concentrate approximately 275.5 kt of zircon and 1.127 Mt of rutile annually. The recovery of REEs from these materials could also yield significant quantities of thorium (for nuclear fuel) and phosphorus (for fertilizers). It should be noted that the above tonnage estimates are based on various assumptions and very limited real mineral-specific data. New analyses on oil sands samples could significantly improve the accuracy of those estimates. Leveraging these resources could occur quickly compared to conventional geological deposits, which typically require lengthy exploration and permitting processes.

Image

Learn More About:

• Evaluation of Critical Mineral Potential in Alberta
• Rare Earth Element Potential in Alberta Oil Sands and Bedrock REE

Other significant critical mineral resources in Alberta include potash, iron, titanium, and zinc. Potash is a group of minerals containing potassium, a vital nutrient for plants and a key component in fertilizers. In Alberta, potash potential exists in the uppermost Prairie Evaporite Formation along our southeastern border with Saskatchewan. 

Iron is used primarily in steel production and represents one of the most important industrial commodities. In Alberta, various iron occurrences have been identified, including the Rambling Creek/Clear Hills iron deposit in west-central Alberta and the Burmis paleoplacer magnetite occurrences in southwestern Alberta that also contain elevated titanium concentrations.

Zinc is used primarily as a galvanizing agent and in brass alloys due to its reactive properties. In Alberta, zinc has been identified in the Birch Mountains highly metalliferous black shales deposit and in numerous highly metalliferous black shales throughout Alberta. Significant zinc concentrations have been recorded in the Oldman occurrence at Mount Gass in southwestern Alberta. 

Learn More About:

• Ooidal Ironstone of the Bad Heart Formation
• Oolitic Ironstone and Coal Digital Compilation
• Base Metals
• Lead and Zinc

Image