What makes a Strategic Mineral?

Make no mistake, the world focus on critical minerals is at a tipping point, they are needed, they are in short supply due to China’s monopoly and China will use this monopoly to create scarcity. All of us will be affected.

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Here at Dark Star Crystal Mines we have faced some temporary obstacles, as a result of the wider geopolitical picture. For us there’s now increased competition for a share of Canadian resources, particularly concerning the claim staking protocol in Ontario. For our clients, those of you who are mineral and crystal collectors, the potential spin-off consequences are much broader.

 

As a mineral collector, it's essential to discover new and lucrative locations from which to source your specimens. Well traveled locations soon become “tapped out”. Historically, places like Old Bear Lake Diggings, Titanite Hill, and the Schickler property have been popular. These locations were patented claims. They were owned by the local county and were part of the attraction to the Bancroft area for mineral collectors. They were a vital component of the local economy. On patented claims, such as those controlled by the County, the mineral owner is also the landowner, granting permission for rockhounds to collect and keep what they find.

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Where once it was OK to spend your day digging through old tailings dumps; now it may no longer be the case. Somewhere along the way the emphasis on rockhound tourists has fallen by the wayside resulting in diminished opportunity to do what collectors do.

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The emergence of a new Political Administration in our neighbor to the south has introduced tensions, and although the U.S. and Canada have long had a cooperative relationship, there are now shifts in once firmly acknowledged economic agreements. This has caused a shake-up in various industries, everyone wonders what the future holds and how the new players will interact. Technological innovations introduce new demands, which are driving the global economy in new directions. These innovations are closely tied to key resources—rare minerals and metals—making them crucial for economic development, particularly in green technologies and high-tech military devices, most have multiple applications.

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Lanthanum, from the Greek word to “lie hidden” is a relatively common rare earth produced by both china, Russia and the US. It makes up 25-38% of monazite ores and is used in the production of high refractive glass in night vision goggles, as a petroleum cracking catalyst and in rechargeable batteries. Monazite is relatively common in the Bear Lake area and it is just one of the many minerals required in the new economic order.

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Mineral and crystal collectors often gather specimens from abandoned mineral seams and tailing piles. Many of these locations were once economically feasible to mine, but often because of the economy’s changing demand, they now lie abandoned, but not depleted. Apatite for example was once actively mined for its phosphate value, but with discovery of the more cheaply extracted southern guano deposits the apatite mines were abandoned. Most Ontario collectors have visited at least one such location and glassy green apatite prisms adorn many collections.

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Historically, about every 50 years, the global economic focus has shifted (Kondratief waves). A prime example is the invention of the internal combustion engine, which set off an insatiable demand for oil. This transformed Western society, influencing everything from transportation to urban planning. Without our North-American dependence upon cars, big box stores, malls and urban subdivisions would not exist either. The combustion engine has totally shaped our society and how we function. In turn the engine needed to run on fuel and the resulting dependence on oil shaped international relations and geopolitical manouvering. How many wars have we fought over oil, or if you choose to call it WMDs? This pattern of economic shifts in response to innovation can be seen over and over with key innovations, e.g. the information age and its supporting resources was set in motion by the development of the silicon chip, and from that chip how we work, communicate and live has entirely changed.

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Recent technological discoveries around  renewable energy and military innovations are enabled by what we list as critical minerals, the rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt, and tantalum. Without these minerals technological advancement falters; no more jet engines, night vision goggles or windmills. While the West has only recently realized the importance of these resources, China has been strategically positioning itself for decades to dominate the supply chain. You might say that we’ve been caught napping, not just a little shuteye, but a “Rip Van-winkle sized snorefest”.

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China’s long-term planning—free from the interruptions of changing administrations with different agendas, has allowed it to secure a leading position in the global mineral market. Beginning as far back as the 1970s, China steadily advanced toward critical mineral dominance. Today, China controls roughly 60% of the production and 90% of the processing of rare earth elements. Despite Australia holding the largest lithium supplies, it is China that controls the supply chain. Through early investments in Africa, particularly in the Congo, China also dominates the cobalt and graphite markets. Stepping back for a look we now see that of the 13 critical minerals essential to the American economy, China controls 9 of those, from the other side it is only beryllium that China needs from the west.

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In recent years, China has exerted its influence over global strategic mineral markets. For example, in 2023, China produced 48% of the world’s antimony, a crucial element in military technology. By restricting exports, China caused the price of antimony to soar by 230% in 2024. Similarly, China has banned the export of essential technologies for manufacturing rare-earth magnets, alongside restrictions on key minerals like gallium, germanium, and graphite. It’s not only the actual resources that China controls, but also the downstream and midstream processes – were talking the technologies for processing, the actual refining facilities and the hidden shareholders in major mineral companies. 98% of niobium is from Brazil with ¾ of it being handled by CBMM. Looking deeper it is discovered that in 2011 China began jockeying for majority control of CBMM with an initial purchase of 15% of the company’s shares.

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 For too long, our economies have been focused on short-term gains, often at the expense of long-term sustainability. The West needs to control its supply chains if it is to run independently of China’s interests. Our reliance on a carbon-based economy has allowed us to postpone advancement, and the reality of China's growing control over critical resources has caught many by surprise. Following a US/Canada agreement in 2020 to be less reliant on the Chinese production and supply Chains, Biden announced a $250M package to encourage US/Can mineral exploration and development in 2023. The problem is real and it requires boots on the ground actions. At present it is known that Canada has reserves of at least 34 critical minerals and in 2023 it had exported 30B worth to the United States.

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China, despite being a major carbon emitter, is now in a position to lead the way in green technology—an ironic twist in which it appears to not be embracing itself. Whereas the US produces 4.9B metric tons of CO2 a year, China is puffing out 11.9 metric tons. But looking back to advent of the steam engine and its dependence on coal the US is still ahead in overall emissions. It serves as a reminder of how the West spent its “environmental credit card” without realizing it would eventually have to pay the bill. The question now is whether the West can course-correct and find new, sustainable solutions, independent of Chinese influence. Canada is the solution next door.

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The U.S., in particular, has recognized this imbalance, with investments being made into refining critical minerals domestically. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. committed to developing a cobalt refinery in Ontario and securing key minerals like copper, graphite, and gold in Quebec and the Northwest Territories. These actions signal recognition of the need to break China’s monopoly on critical minerals, but the challenge remains. In 2019 Trump proposed tariffs on Huawei, a Chinese telecom company for its supposedly invasive 5G network and in retaliation, Canada, who detained the CEO, Meng Wanzhou, and not being on the technological edge as are many US companies, was punished by the restriction of Canadian pork going to China. The US who rely heavily on Chinese minerals were threatened with restriction on the flow of those resources, namely rare earths upon which it has an 80% dependence upon china for supply. Right now it looks like Ukraine may be part of the answer; they have graphite, lithium and rare earths and they’re being eyed in what I would call a potentially extortionate deal to cash in on an arms for minerals exchange. Forget that the defense of that country works for all of us, it is the Ukrainians’ who are sacrificing lives to hold the line.

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Acknowledging the precarious situation, Ontario's Premier Doug Ford recently announced the "Fortress Am-Can" initiative, aimed at strengthening the strategic mineral alliance between Canada and the U.S. in an effort to reduce China’s influence. Ontario, rich in key minerals like nickel, copper, lithium, and cobalt, is positioning itself as a crucial player in this new economic landscape. The provincial government is offering grants and support to develop these resources, while also investing in infrastructure projects in Northern Ontario’s mineral-rich “Ring of Fire”.

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This shift in focus brings implications for the mineral collecting community. Old mine dumps and tailings piles, once considered waste, may now be repurposed for commercial use by industries related to modern technology. Whereas silver was what was sought in the initial boom, it is now the waste cobalt that was mixed into silver veins that is valued. In fact in Germany’s ancient silver mines it was a goblin-like being called a Kobalt who was blamed for turning good silver into waste mineral (Cobalt) As of July 1, 2025, the Ontario Mining Act will facilitate the recovery of residual metals from these former waste sites. In the town of Cobalt Ontario there must have been a whole tribe of those German goblins at work. A company aligned with the American military has just set up an extraction site for cobalt.

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Although collecting remains a recreational activity, mineral collectors will face diminishing opportunities. As cast-off mineral resources become more commercially valuable, open claims for grassroots prospecting are fewer. Being in the way of development that category of actor in the Mining Act might even soon be eliminated. Yet, the increased focus on mining and resource extraction might also create new opportunities for collectors. Years from now the tailings outside the Cobalt mines might have all been shoveled into refineries, but what lies outside today’s ytterium mines might become a prized collecting location.

 

In conclusion, the landscape of mineral collecting in Ontario is undergoing significant changes. As new economic pressures and technological advancements reshape the industry, collectors must adapt. While it may seem like a challenging time for amateur prospectors, the evolving mineral economy could open up new avenues for discovery and exploration. As always, change is inevitable, so change with the times or go the way of the dinosaurs.