What makes a Strategic Mineral?

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Strategic and Critical Minerals and Their Connection to Rockhounding in Ontario

 

​The future of critical minerals in Ontario is shaping global geopolitics, green technology, and mineral exploration, as lithium, rare earth elements, and pegmatites position the province at the center of the world’s strategic resource race.

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Table of Contents

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• Geopolitical Mining & the Global Race for Critical Minerals

• Ontario’s Strategic Mineral Policy Shift (2026)

• Canada–India Critical Minerals Partnership

• Strategic Minerals, Ontario Claims & Rockhounding Access

• Pegmatites of Ontario: Apatite, Monazite & REEs

• Strategic Minerals & Green Technology

• Western Dependence on China & Ontario’s Mineral Role

• Northern Ontario’s Lithium & the Battery Supply Chain

• Geology of Northern Ontario’s Critical Minerals

• How Rockhounds Support Mineral Discovery

• FAQ: Ontario’s Strategic & Critical Minerals

• Rockhounding in Ontario and Strategic Mineral Discovery

 

Strategic Minerals and Their Connection to Rockhounding in Ontario

 

The future of critical minerals in Ontario is shaping global geopolitics, green technology, and mineral exploration, as lithium mining, rare earth elements, and Ontario pegmatites position the province at the center of the world’s strategic resource race.

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Geopolitical Mining and the Global Race for Critical Minerals

 

The global focus on critical and strategic minerals has reached a tipping point. These essential resources power clean energy technologies, electric vehicles, defense systems, and high-tech manufacturing, yet many are in dangerously short supply. As Eduardo Zamanillo explains in Mining Is Dead. Long Live Geopolitical Mining, “lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements, and more are no longer just commodities—they are the hidden architecture of global power, deciding who leads in technology, defense, finance, and diplomacy.” This shift places Ontario’s mineral wealth squarely at the center of the global resource race.

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China’s long-standing dominance over rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt, and graphite has allowed it to influence supply chains and global pricing. By controlling large portions of the critical minerals market, China has created artificial scarcity and strategic leverage. Every country is affected, but the impact depends on alliances, trade relationships, and access to domestic critical mineral resources. With its vast pegmatite belts, shield geology, and proven lithium and rare earth potential, Ontario is emerging as a key player in North America’s strategic minerals strategy.

 

At Dark Star Crystal Mines, we’re seeing these changes firsthand. Rising global demand for Ontario critical minerals is intensifying competition for mineral claims, exploration properties, and pegmatite-hosted deposits across Northern Ontario. Mining companies, Ontario prospectors, and rockhounds in Ontario now operate in a more competitive and regulated environment. From lithium pegmatites and rare earth minerals to collectible crystal specimens, Ontario’s geology is drawing attention from both industry and the rockhounding community alike.

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Ontario’s Strategic Mineral Policy Shift (2026)

 

In 2025, Ontario’s strategic mineral strategy was firmly aligned with a “Fortress Am-Can” mindset focused on North American critical mineral supply chains. While permitting was streamlined, the timeline from staking a claim to production still stretches close to 15 years.

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The Can-Am initiative emphasized a secure continental supply of nickel, lithium, cobalt, and graphite from Ontario mining districts to reduce dependence on China.

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By early 2026, global trade realities forced a dramatic policy pivot. Canada shifted toward direct engagement with China through critical mineral investment and processing partnerships.

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For Ontario’s mineral exploration and rockhounding communities, this means access and land use are now shaped as much by geopolitics as by geology. Ontario's mining and exploration activities have taken a whole 180 over the last few years. Green technology seems to be the way of the future and much as trump says he hates windmills and is leaning in the direction of coal for energy he seems obsessed with Greenland and northern Canada. The connection are the rare earths so prolific in both.

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Canada–India Critical Minerals Partnership

 

Ontario is the only region in North America that contains all the minerals required to manufacture lithium-ion batteries: cobalt, nickel, lithium, and graphite. Ontario’s Ministry of Economic Development has announced major funding to support critical mineral processing in Canada, and partnerships with India are gaining momentum.

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Strategic Minerals, Ontario Claims & Rockhounding Access

 

For Ontario mineral collectors and rockhounds, finding productive localities has always been essential. Sites like Old Bear Lake, Titanite Hill, and the Schickler Fluorite occurrence helped establish Bancroft as the Mineral Capital of Canada.

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Today, strategic mineral demand has altered priorities. Tailings once dismissed as waste—such as cobalt in Cobalt, Ontario’s historic silver district—are now economically valuable again.

 

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Pegmatites of Ontario: Apatite, Monazite & REEs

 

Ontario’s pegmatites are among Canada’s most important sources of lithium, cesium, tantalum, and rare earth elements (REEs). LCT pegmatites in northwestern Ontario—such as PAK, Spark, Root Bay, and Mavis Lake—host lithium essential for EV batteries and energy storage. Bancroft-area pegmatites also contain apatite, monazite, beryl, and REEs, making them vital both scientifically and economically.

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Monazite is especially significant. It contains 25–38% lanthanum, used in night-vision optics, catalysts, and rechargeable batteries. For collectors, abandoned mines and tailings around Bancroft still yield fine apatite crystals and monazite specimens—relics of a time when phosphate was the main target and REEs were ignored.

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Strategic Minerals & Green Technology

 

New technologies create new mineral demand. Renewable energy systems, EVs, wind turbines, and military hardware all rely on rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt, and tantalum. Without these minerals, technological progress stalls. While the West is only now reacting, China has spent decades building dominance over both production and processing.

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China controls roughly 60% of global REE production and over 90% of processing capacity. It also dominates cobalt, graphite, gallium, and germanium markets. By restricting exports, China has repeatedly triggered price spikes and supply shocks. This control extends beyond mining—it includes refining technologies, logistics, and ownership stakes in major global producers.

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Western Dependence on China & Ontario’s Mineral Role

 

For too long, Western economies focused on short-term profits instead of long-term resource security. Canada and the U.S. both fell into this trap and are now working independant of each other to rebuild domestic supply chains. Though they both may not admit it there is a need to move from a carbon to a rare earths based economy. Ontario’s rare earths, nickel, lithium, cobalt, copper, and graphite are central to this effort, especially in regions like the Ring of Fire.

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Although U.S.–Canada agreements and investment packages have encouraged exploration and processing, political volatility has made alliances unpredictable. Ontario must remain agile. Strategic minerals are only “strategic” within the context of global partnerships—and those partnerships are changing.

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Northern Ontario’s Lithium & the Battery Supply Chain

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Northern Ontario is emerging as one of Canada’s most promising regions for future lithium production. Lithium mining in Ontario is driven by extensive hard-rock pegmatite systems and growing exploration success. Midex Resources alone holds at least six separate lithium projects across the region, with CEO David Jamieson emphasizing that the company’s lithium occurs in classic lithium-bearing pegmatites. Northwestern Ontario's pegmatites are known for hosting valuable minerals like feldspar, mica (phlogopite, muscovite), quartz, lithium (spodumene), tantalum (columbite-tantalite), and rare earth elements (REEs).

 

Midex's two most significant project areas include claims adjacent to Frontier Lithium’s PAK project—where large, high-yielding pegmatites dominate—and a second, highly prospective zone made up of pegmatite swarms closer to Thunder Bay. Access to Thunder Bay is a major advantage, as its port, road, and rail infrastructure are critical for moving concentrate to downstream processing facilities.

 

Geology of Northern Ontario’s Critical Minerals

 

Geologically, Northern Ontario offers exceptional diversity, with multiple terranes and structurally complex settings that are favorable for lithium enrichment. Jamieson notes that Midex’s claims span different geological environments, increasing the probability of multiple deposit styles and scalable resources. This is underscored by Frontier Lithium’s PAK project, which is based on two main spodumene-bearing deposits located just a few kilometers apart but extending along a 65-kilometre strike. Such scale highlights the district-wide potential for discovery and development, rather than isolated, single-deposit plays.

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From a mineralogy, mining and exploration and market standpoint, Northern Ontario is especially attractive because it hosts spodumene, the preferred lithium ore mineral for the battery industry. While lithium can also be extracted from petalite, lepidolite, clays like hectorite, and brines. Spodumene remains the most commercially significant ore for lithium mining in Ontario due to its high lithium content (5-6%) and favorable processing characteristics, namely that unlike other sources, the lithium in spodumene can be processed to be either lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate. Both are required in the battery industry.

 

Frontier reports very low iron levels in their spodumene—an important advantage, since iron is a detrimental impurity for battery-grade products. Although there is currently no lithium production in North America, demand continues to rise not only for batteries but also for glass, lubricants, and specialty alloys. Taken together, Northern Ontario’s geology, infrastructure, and project scale position it as a future cornerstone of domestic lithium supply.

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How Rockhounds Support Mineral Discovery

 

Rockhounding plays a quiet but important role in Ontario’s mineral economy:

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• Amateur collectors and local prospectors often identify new occurrences later confirmed by universities and museums
• Rockhounds frequent pegmatites and old mine dumps where lithium, tantalum, and REEs occur. The new needs of our economy might make those old collecting sites out of bounds.
• Areas like Bancroft, Cobalt, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay link recreational collecting to strategic geology.

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Rockhounding is low-impact, community-driven prospecting. Over time, the passion of hobbyists helps map the very resources that later power Ontario’s economic and green-energy future.

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FAQ: Ontario’s Strategic & Critical Minerals

 

1. What exactly are strategic and critical minerals in Ontario?

   • These are minerals essential for modern tech, green energy (EV batteries, wind turbines), and economic security, with few substitutes, like lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper, rare earths, chromite, platinum, and more, found in Ontario's vast geology.

2. Why are strategic and critical minerals so important now?

   • They power the global transition to a low-carbon economy, supporting electric vehicles (EVs) and digital technologies, making them vital for national security and economic competitiveness against supply chain risks.

3. Where in Ontario can we find strategic and critical minerals?

   • Major opportunities lie in the Ring of Fire (nickel, copper, chromite) and other deposits across the province, with advanced projects for lithium, graphite, and more in northern regions.

4. What is Ontario's plan to develop strategic and critical minerals?

   • Ontario’s Critical Minerals Strategy 2022–2027 focuses on boosting investment, streamlining regulations, fostering partnerships (including with Indigenous communities), and building domestic manufacturing to create jobs and economic growth.

5. What challenges does Ontario face around strategic and critical minerals?

   • Key hurdles include workforce shortages, attracting sufficient investment, infrastructure needs (especially in remote areas like the Ring of Fire), and balancing development with environmental goals. 

 

Rockhounding in Ontario and Strategic Mineral Discovery

 

Old waste dumps are becoming tomorrow’s ore. Where silver was once king, cobalt—once cursed as “goblin ore”—is now prized. As strategic demand grows, mineral collectors may see fewer open sites but also new opportunities as new tailings and secondary deposits emerge.

 

Change is inevitable. The rockhounding landscape in Ontario is evolving, and collectors must evolve with it. Those who understand geology, history, and strategic minerals will be best positioned for the future

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Author Bio

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Michael Gordon has been rockhounding and studying Ontario pegmatites for over 30 years, he has a degree in geography and a Diploma in gemology and is author of the Rockhound Series which can be purchased on the Lulu website.

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Work cited

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Zamanillo, E. (2025). Mining is Dead. Long live geopolitical mining: Why critical minerals and strategic power will define the next global order. QM books(Canada).

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Last updated 2026

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