Above Photo: Chris LeBoutillier/Unsplash.
Trudeau has branded Canada a climate champion.
Does that claim hold up to scrutiny?
The Canadian Mining Journal, an industry magazine catered to insiders, has released its annual ranking of Canada’s top 40 miners. Describing 2022 as “a remarkable year” for Canada’s largest mining companies, editor Tamer Elboki praised the Canadian mining sector for “prov[ing] to be as solid and robust as it could be” in the face of the pandemic and geopolitical instability.
In 2021, Canada’s top 40 mining companies raked in revenues of $143 billion from mines peppered throughout the world. Last year, these firms made a record $177 billion in revenues—an increase of $34 billion—amid government efforts to increase mining development within Canada and abroad.
As with last year, companies must meet two of the following three criteria to be included on the list: be domiciled in Canada; trade on a Canadian stock exchange, and; have a significant share of an operating mine or advanced development in Canada. Thirty-five of 2022’s top 40 companies are headquartered in Canada.
The revenues accumulated by Canada’s top 40 companies rely massively on overseas investment, primarily in countries with low taxation, royalties, and weak regulations around labour, consultation, and the environment. Seventeen of the top 40 Canadian companies do not operate a single mine in Canada.
Fortuna Silver Mines Inc., number 28 on the list, is expanding its operations in South America and West Africa. In an interview with the Journal, Fortuna President and CEO Jorge A. Ganoza celebrated the fact that “the company will benefit from [its] expanded presence in the Americas and West Africa, two of the fastest growing precious metals producing regions.” Its West African investments, acquired in July 2021, already moved it up three places on the list from 2021.
Fortuna now owns development projects in Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. With a 2022 revenue of $887 million, the company has no operational mines or development projects inside Canada.
Four of the top 10 Canadian mining companies rely solely on overseas investments for their multi-billion-dollar earnings. Three of these companies were also in last year’s top 10: First Quantum Minerals, (sixth place), Kinross Gold (ninth place), and Lundin Mining (tenth place). In 2021:
First Quantum raised $9 billion in revenue… more than the GDP of Mauritania, where it owns 100 percent of the profitable Guelb Moghrein mine. Kinross Gold made $4.6 billion from investments in the United States, Brazil, Chile, and Mauritania. And Lundin Mining brought in $4.1 billion from its predominantly Latin American operations.
This year, First Quantum’s revenues increased to almost $10 billion, while its net income jumped from about $1 billion to $2.8 billion. It should be noted that in Zambia, one of the countries where First Quantum is most active, 61 percent of the population lives on less than $2.15 per day.
Historically, First Quantum has enjoyed the uncritical backing of the Canadian state. Readers will perhaps remember that, when the Congolese government nationalized a mine owned by First Quantum in 2010, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper took up the company’s case with the G8, the G20, the IMF, the World Bank, and “other governments that do business in the DRC.” These diplomatic pressures ultimately saw the mine returned to Canadian ownership.
The $34 billion jump in revenues in 2022 was mainly driven by Canada’s two largest mining companies: Nutrien and Teck Resources. Riding high commodity prices and sanctions against top potash producers Russia and Belarus, Nutrien revenues increased by $15 billion, while its net income jumped by $6 billion. Teck Resources’ revenues increased by almost $10 billion, and its net income by about $500 million.
Many companies in the top 40 have come under scrutiny in their countries of operation due to accusations of environmental degradation and egregious human rights abuses. These companies include:
- Barrick Gold (revenues of $15 billion). Accused of abuse and corruption in countries ranging from Chile to Tanzania.
- Hudbay Minerals (revenues of $2 billion). Accused in the murder of Guatemalan activist Adolfo Ich Chamán and the sexual assault of 11 Guatemalan women.
- Iamgold (revenues of $1.3 billion). Displaced 2,500 families to build its Essakane mine in Burkina Faso, “causing immense hardship for people who lost their fertile farmland and crucial access to water in the extremely dry region.”
- Equinox Gold (revenues of $1.2 billion). Accused of pollution and human rights abuses in Brazil and Mexico.
- Centerra Gold (revenues of $1.1 billion). Lucrative Kumtor gold mine was nationalized in 2021 following massive environmental violations.
- Lundin Gold (revenues of $1 billion). President Nathan Monash came out against local consultations with environmental groups and Indigenous communities in Ecuador while backing corrupt President Guillermo Lasso.
- Argonaut Gold (revenues of $505 million). Accused of poor working conditions, damaging the health and houses of community members around its La Colorada mine in Mexico.
Many of these companies’ mines have provoked intense, organized community resistance due to their deleterious effects on the social and ecological fabric of local towns and villages. In Canada, too, First Nations are resisting the extractivist push, which produces similar negatives effects, in BC, Ontario, and elsewhere.
In BC, the Gixtaala First Nation is challenging the province’s Mineral Tenure Act, a “free entry” system that allows companies to register mineral claims on a piece of land without the consent of the government or landowner. In 2018 and 2020, BC’s chief gold commissioner registered several mineral claims on Gixtaala territory where the nation has asserted title.
The legal challenge, which is currently before the Supreme Court of British Columbia, began in April 2023. It aims to make BC’s mining laws comply with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which the province adopted in 2019. Among other things, UNDRIP necessitates “free, prior and informed consent” from those Indigenous communities that will be impacted by extractive projects. The Gixtaala Nation has been joined in the challenge by “[BC’s] First Nations Leadership Council, six environmental groups, four First Nations and two mineral exploration businesses.”
In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford is rolling a “legislative bulldozer” over Indigenous communities in his efforts to exploit the province’s lithium, a critical mineral that is playing a key role in the new Cold War on China. Over the past few years, Ontario has registered thousands of new exploration projects, often without consulting nearby First Nations, a violation of Canadian law.
Amidst Western calls for “supply chain diversification,” Premier Ford passed the Building More Mines Act. Backed by the Trudeau government’s Critical Minerals Strategy, Ford is pushing ahead with extractive efforts despite the committed resistance of Indigenous communities in Ontario and concerns that such development will destroy crucial carbon sinks in the “Ring of Fire” region.
In the Albertan oilsands, too, Canadian companies saw a huge spike in revenues in 2022. The Journal notes this in their top 40 list:
Ottawa is crafting policies that would put legislative pressure on the [mining] sector to decarbonize more quickly, including an emissions cap and killing “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies. Despite that… Canada’s oilsands sector saw tremendous increases in revenues in 2022, compared to 2021. Oil prices continued to soar due to the geopolitical instability caused by the war in Ukraine.
Despite claims that Ottawa is “killing” fossil fuel subsidies, the Trudeau government has continually subsidized the industry with billions in public funds. Trudeau has branded Canada a climate champion, and in the process become the bête noire of the Prairie right-wing, especially in Alberta. However, these figures show that the revenues and net incomes of Canada’s top oilsands producers increased massively in 2022.
Cenovus Energy, the top oilsands producer, increased its revenues from $49 billion in 2021 to $72 billion last year (its net income also skyrocketed from $587 million to $6.5 billion).
Suncor Energy’s revenues increased by over $20 billion, and its net income rose by $5 billion. Canadian Natural Resources went from $33 billion to $49 billion in revenues, while net income spiked $3 billion. And MEG Energy’s revenues went up by $2 billion, with a net income jump of over $600 million.
Overall, combined revenues from Canada’s top four oilsands producers equalled $127 billion in 2021, their net income $12 billion. In 2022, revenues leapt to $190 billion, while combined net incomes more than doubled, reaching $27 billion.
Even if these increases were partly driven by high commodity prices, the question remains: if Canada is a climate champion, how is it that Canadian fossil fuel companies are doing so well, increasing their incomes while enjoying billions in subsidies, tax deductions and credits, grants and direct funding, government loans and loan guarantees, and reduced royalties and royalty credits?
The figures provided by the Canadian Mining Journal show that as average Canadians increasingly struggle to get by, as ordinary people around Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere endure the catastrophic social and ecological effects of transnational mining, and as the climate situation worsens every year, Canada’s largest mining and oilsands companies are doing better than ever. This says a lot about what our leadership class truly values.