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26 SUMMER 2024 MINING POTENTIAL: DIGGING DEEPER INTO MANITOBA'S CRITICAL MINERALS INDUSTRY BY LINDSEY WARD CRITICAL MINERALS From nickel to copper-zinc and lithium to gold, many of Manitoba's richest natural resources remain untapped. The opportunities to dis- cover high-demand critical minerals in Manitoba are as vast as the land they lie beneath. Equally expansive are the ben- efits these explorations can have on the province. Aside from the obvious advantage of promoting sustainable growth, the critical minerals sector has a unique ability to foster economic reconciliation with Indigenous communities. "Fifty per cent or more of our province is actually hard rock, an area which we can explore to dis- cover critical minerals," says MaryAnn Mihychuk, president of the Manitoba Prospectors and Developers Association (MPDA), a leading voice of the mineral exploration and development sector in Manitoba. "Manitoba has an enormous amount of land that has potential for mineral discovery." Mihychuk, a retired politician and geologist, says Manitoba is under- explored compared to neighbouring provinces like Ontario, which houses similar resources. Creating meaning- ful partnerships with the Indigenous communities where these critical minerals are situated is a crucial part of uncovering them, she says, and there is still work to be done. "Exploration companies have two bosses. You have the province that you must comply with their rules, and you must get their permits and you must get all the things that they demand," she says. "But you also need permission from the First Nation. And if you don't get that, your project can't go on." Indigenous people have been involved in exploration and ex- traction for thousands of years. Trappers even founded Manitoba's largest mines in Flin Flon and Bissett, where they helped settlers locate various types of rock, but their involvement dissipated soon afterwards. "After the settlers created the rules, most First Nations have not been engaged in the mineral sector," Mihychuk says. "So they're like, 'How is this going to benefit us? We see Vale Base Metals' T3 headframe in Manitoba

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