- Gov. Cox met with Quebec officials to talk about critical minerals amid an international trade war.
- Utah is the most attractive location in the world for mining investment, a Canadian think tank found.
- In response to new tariffs, China expanded its export ban on several critical minerals the U.S. relies on.
MONTREAL — Gov. Spencer Cox kicked off a weeklong trade mission to Canada on Monday by telling top Quebec officials about Utah’s best-in-the nation economy.
The state had the highest gross domestic product growth in the United States last year at 4.5%, according to the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
It was also ranked the No. 1 state by U.S. News & World Report — for the second year in a row — and the best place to start a business, according to multiple reviews.
But the stand-out statistic during Cox’s Monday meetings with Quebec ministers of energy and natural resources was from a 2024 report by the Canadian Fraser Institute.
The survey placed six Canadian provinces and territories, including Quebec, in its top-10 list of locations with abundant mineral deposits and favorable policy environments. However, it found that the best place, not just in North America, but in the world, for mining investment was Utah.
In a statement to the Deseret News, Cox thanked the U.S. consulates in Quebec and Ontario for their support in building lasting partnerships that will open doors for Utah companies to fulfill this potential.
“By working directly with our counterparts in Quebec and Ontario, we’re able to focus on the industries that matter most — energy, AI, aerospace, critical minerals and more — and accelerate joint projects that benefit both sides," Cox said. “These region-to-region partnerships allow us to share best practices, strengthen supply chains and tackle shared challenges more efficiently.”
Originally scheduled for last year, Cox’s diplomatic tour marks the first trip to Canada by a United States governor since President Donald Trump announced a new global tariff regime, with targeted levies deeply impacting Canada, the No. 2 trade partner of the U.S. and Utah.
With 25% tariffs cutting into Canada’s place as America’s top foreign source of iron, aluminum and processing — and with retaliatory measures from China blocking U.S. access to a slew of critical minerals — the turbulence of a trade war could provide an opportunity for Utah’s critical minerals and mining sectors to expand.
Utah: The world’s mining powerhouse?
This week, while in Montreal and Toronto, the Utah trade group will split into separate tracks focusing on artificial intelligence and critical minerals, including nuclear reactor site visits, industry panels and networking events.
On Monday, members of the trade delegation, coming from the Governor’s Office, World Trade Center Utah, the state Legislature, multiple universities and several businesses, met with representatives of Rio Tinto, one of the largest mining companies in the world, and the owner of Bingham Canyon Mine in Salt Lake County.
Bingham Canyon Mine, or Kennecott Copper Mine, is one of the most prolific copper operations in the world. But the emphasis of many discussions during this trade mission will be on Utah’s largely untapped reserve of critical minerals that are facing shortages amid escalating reciprocal trade barriers.
In 2022, the U.S. geological survey updated its list of 50 minerals that it determined were essential to the U.S. economy and national defense. Of those critical minerals, dozens were mostly sourced from other nations, with the U.S. relying entirely on imports for several “strategic defense critical minerals” like arsenic, indium, gallium, graphite and scandium.
China is the dominant producer of many critical minerals and is the only source for several materials necessary for advanced technologies. Starting in December, and accelerating after Trump increased its tariff rate to 54%, China targeted the U.S. with export bans on 15 of these critical minerals.
Upheaval in the international trade environment serves as the backdrop for the Utah trade mission as members work with Canadian counterparts to identify more opportunities to build out mineral processing partnerships and to attract investments in Utah mineral exploration.
“The U.S. is finally starting to wake up to figuring out ways to lessen that dominance that China has in these markets and make ourselves more self-sufficient for our mineral supply chains,” said Brian Somers, the president of the Utah Mining Association, who attended the trade mission to Canada.
The Fraser Institute identified Utah as the world’s most attractive location for mining investment because it had the best regulatory environment for mining companies, it was the most cost friendly and it had the third best selection of natural resources.
While Utah is known for its copper exports, it is the only state to produce beryllium concentrate, potassium sulfate and uintaite, according to the most recent Utah geological survey. It is also one of only two lithium-producing states. In total, Utah produces five critical minerals, it is able to begin producing two more and it could potentially produce six more, the survey said.
“There are other states that definitely produce more than we do, but I think that one of the things that does set us apart is that we have a very diversified industry,” Somers said.
However, despite its potential on the critical minerals front, the facts on the ground suggest it will be difficult to expand Utah operations without strengthened ties to Canada even as new tariffs target Canadian production and processing of critical minerals.
Why Canada is key to Utah’s mining future
In 2023, Utah’s third largest export to Canada was non-iron metals and minerals, which accounted for $85 million last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data compiled by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. These minerals are by far Utah’s largest import from Canada, totaling more than $1.8 billion in 2024.
This total includes the cost Utah businesses pay to process minerals in Canada, the bulk of which are molybdenum and tellurium, a critical mineral, Somers said. But recent tariffs could get in the way of U.S.-Canadian efforts to work around China’s export ban.
Over the last month, Trump has announced a flat 25% tariff “without exceptions or exemptions” on all steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. and a 10% tariff on energy and critical mineral imports that do not fall under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Canada is America’s top foreign source of steel and aluminum, accounting for around one-fourth of total steel imports and three-fourths of aluminum imports, representing more than 60% of America’s yearly aluminum consumption.
Canada also processes many of Utah’s critical minerals. One example of the cross-border partnership is an agreement between Rio Tinto’s Kennecott mine and Montreal’s 5N Plus to refine tellurium mined in Utah, which is then integrated into semiconductors at 5N’s St. George Office.
One difficulty of applying tariffs to critical minerals, and critical mineral processing, is the impracticality of relocating processing plants because of how complicated and expensive they are to build, according to Mick Thomas, the director of the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining at the Utah Department of Natural Resources, who also attended the trade mission to Canada.
“Once a country or somebody builds one of these processing plants, it’s a global resource,” Thomas said. “I can either spend however many hundreds of million to build a processing plant here over the next 10 years, or we could put it on a truck and ship it to Canada because they’ve got a plant ready to go.”
But there are many positive signs at the state and federal level that point to the growth of the critical minerals industry in Utah, Thomas and Somers said.
For one, the Trump administration has moved to create an energy dominance council to oversee critical mineral permitting reform and has ordered federal agencies to fast-track priority projects that involve critical minerals.
Additionally, Utah has a strong defense industry presence surrounding Hill Air Force Base and recently passed legislation to expand the state’s unique mineral exploration tax credit.
Finally, Utah’s trade mission shows it is committed to exploring new opportunities for critical minerals in a turbulent economic environment.
“Finding new technologies that can help to recover and process these critical minerals is really going to be an effort that’s going to require partnerships,” Somers said. “Especially for those that have been banned for export from China — if we’re going to do that in a shorter timeframe, we’re going to have to look to use existing facilities to make that production happen.”