On March 3, 2026, the Coal Association of Canada called on the Government of Canada to declare metallurgical coal, otherwise known as steelmaking coal, a critical mineral. The justification for this is clear: steel is essential to our everyday lives and met coal is essential to produce steel. Met coal is the backbone of global steel production representing 71% of all steel made. That steel is used to build our homes, buildings, renewables, oil and gas infrastructure, our medical supplies, and our automobiles (virtually everything uses steel, or needs steel to be made).
But met coal can also play a significant role in Canada’s relationships with other nations and place in the world. In his speech at Davos, Prime Minister Mark Carney remarked on the strategic partnerships that Canada has undertaken with the EU. Just recently, the Prime Minister signed an agreement with India to rebuild trade relationships with them [8]. And, despite recent tariff troubles, Canada and the US remain each other’s largest trade partners. Where Canada differs with these countries, however, is that they have all declared met coal a critical or strategic mineral and we have not.
In 2014, the European Union added coking coal to their list of critical raw minerals. Last year, in March, the US declared met coal as a critical mineral. And just this year, India added met coal to their list of critical minerals– a change that reinforces their commitment to increase steel production over the coming decades.
Canada already contributes significantly to global coal markets and has the potential to contribute even more. 47 Mt of coal is produced in Canada per year with 60% of it being metallurgical. Canada is also the 4th largest provider of seaborn coal, and coal is the largest export per tonnage through the Port of Vancouver. This contribution to global coal markets has a significant economic impact for the country where it serves as a $10 billion industry and supports over 10,000 Canadian jobs.
So why not align with the countries that we are trying to build better relationships with? If Canada wants to diversify abroad, as Prime Minister Carney has stated, then we need to maximize the ways in which we align. Declaring met coal as a critical mineral is a clear way in which we can achieve this.