Canada extracts significant quantities of critical minerals but processes very little of them domestically. Most Canadian lithium, cobalt, rare earth concentrate, and graphite leaves the country as unprocessed ore or concentrate and is refined in China, South Korea, or Japan before returning as battery-grade materials at significantly higher value. This is Canada's most significant strategic vulnerability in the critical minerals supply chain — and the area where federal and provincial policy is now most active. This tracker maps where Canadian processing capacity exists, what is being built, and what the gap remains.
Sources: NRCan, MAC Facts & Figures 2026, company disclosures, CTI analysis. Last updated: June 2026.
| Facility | Operator | Location | Input Material | Output | Capacity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameco Key Lake Mill | Cameco | Saskatchewan | Uranium ore | Uranium oxide (U₃O₈) | ~7M lbs U₃O₈/yr | Operating |
| Cameco Blind River Refinery | Cameco | Ontario | U₃O₈ | Uranium trioxide (UO₃) | World's largest UO₃ refinery | Operating |
| Cameco Port Hope Conversion | Cameco | Ontario | UO₃ | UF₆ and UO₂ (reactor fuel) | Strategic NATO fuel supply | Operating |
| SRC Rare Earth Processing | Saskatchewan Research Council | Saskatoon, SK | REE carbonate | Separated rare earth oxides | First commercial REE separation outside China in North America | Operating (limited capacity) |
| First Cobalt Refinery | First Cobalt (rebranded) | Temiskaming Shores, ON | Cobalt feedstock | Battery-grade cobalt sulphate | Capacity for 25M lbs CoSO₄/yr | Care and maintenance (awaiting feedstock contracts) |
| Mangrove Lithium Delta | Mangrove Lithium | Delta, BC | Spodumene concentrate | Battery-grade lithium hydroxide | 1,000t LiOH/yr Phase 1 (25,000 EV equivalent) | Operating — North America's first commercial electrochemical lithium refinery |
| Glencore Sudbury Smelter | Glencore | Sudbury, ON | Nickel/copper ore | Nickel matte, copper blister, cobalt | Integrated smelting and refining | Operating |
| Vale Copper Cliff | Vale | Sudbury, ON | Nickel/copper/cobalt ore | Refined nickel, copper, cobalt | World-scale nickel refinery | Operating |
| Horne Smelter | Glencore | Rouyn-Noranda, QC | Copper-gold concentrate | Blister copper, gold | Processes electronic scrap and mining concentrate | Operating |
| Facility | Developer | Location | Target Mineral | Target Output | Timeline | Gap It Closes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nemaska Shawinigan | Nemaska Lithium | Shawinigan, QC | Lithium | Battery-grade LiOH | 2025–2026 | Quebec lithium-to-battery chain |
| Nouveau Monde Graphite | Nouveau Monde | Bécancour, QC | Graphite | Battery anode material (AAM) | 2025–2026 | Only Canadian graphite anode producer |
| Mangrove Phase 2 | Mangrove Lithium | Delta, BC | Lithium | 20,000t LiOH/yr (500,000 EV equivalent) | 2027 | Scale to commercial battery supply |
| SRC REE Expansion | Saskatchewan Research Council | Saskatoon, SK | Rare earth elements | Commercial-scale separated oxides | 2026–2027 | Allied rare earth supply chain |
| Electra Battery Materials | Electra | Temiskaming Shores, ON | Cobalt | Battery-grade cobalt sulphate | 2025–2026 | Non-DRC cobalt for North American batteries |
Despite these investments, significant processing gaps remain. Canada has no domestic capacity to produce battery-grade graphite anode material at commercial scale (Nouveau Monde will be the first). Canada has no nickel sulphate refining capacity tailored to battery specifications. Canada has no magnet manufacturing capability — every neodymium-iron-boron magnet in Canadian EVs and wind turbines is imported, almost entirely from China. And Canada's rare earth separation capacity at SRC Saskatoon, while a genuine breakthrough, remains a fraction of what would be needed to process Canadian REE production at scale. These gaps are the targets of the federal Critical Minerals Strategy's $4 billion investment program.