CALGARY — A prominent Canadian entrepreneur is pressing the Liberal government to recognize metallurgical coal as a critical mineral, arguing the country is overlooking a resource needed for domestic manufacturing and defence while it ships billions of dollars worth of the product overseas.W. Brett Wilson submitted his proposal on August 14 through Prairie Merchant Corporation, of which he is the chairman, as part of Ottawa’s consultation on an updated Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy.He is hoping that metallurgical coal will be added to Canada’s Critical Minerals List and formally distinguished from thermal coal in federal policy.“This is not an argument about burning coal to generate electricity,” Wilson wrote in his submission.“Metallurgical coal serves a different purpose. It is an industrial raw material used in steelmaking and should be assessed accordingly.”Canada currently lists 34 critical minerals. Ottawa expanded the list in June 2024 to include high-purity iron ore, phosphorus and silicon metal, but metallurgical coal remains excluded.Wilson questioned why Canada has yet to recognize a commodity it already produces and exports on a large scale..Steel demand drives Alberta’s renewed push for metallurgical coal mining.“It’s bizarre that we’re one of the largest producers of metallurgical coal being shipped to the world, and yet we don’t designate it as a critical mineral,” he told the Western Standard.“The United States and 30 or 40 other countries have done [so], the European Union, South Africa, New Zealand... Many people have designated it as a critical mineral because they understand [its] value.”The United States Department of Energy designated metallurgical coal used in steelmaking as a critical material in May 2025, concluding it met the statutory definition because of its importance to steel production.Canada is already a significant player in the industry.Canadian mines produced roughly 28.5 million tonnes of metallurgical coal in 2024, and Canada exported approximately 29 million tonnes, worth roughly $8.9 billion, making the country the fifth-largest metallurgical coal exporter in the world.Wilson also believes designating metallurgical coal as a critical mineral is “increasingly an economic and national-security issue because of its necessity in steel making.”“[The] government's Defence Industrial Strategy specifically identifies steel as a critical raw material vital to Canada's defence supply chain,” Wilson said.“Canada added high-purity iron ore to its Critical Minerals List in 2024 because of its importance to steelmaking.”Wilson said he met with Natural Resources Canada officials in Ottawa in January to discuss recognition of metallurgical coal as a critical mineral and that the officials told him the timing of updates to the critical minerals list was an obstacle..Carney’s 'Buy Canadian' pledge faces scrutiny over LNG Canada’s Chinese steel plans.“They said their hang-up was that we wouldn't approve critical mineral status until three years had passed,” he stated.“This is a business interest. Why the government thinks it's every three years that we decide what's in our interest seems kind of odd. There's just something very wrong there, in my humble opinion.”Wilson’s comments come just days after LNG Canada announced that the $33-billion second-phase expansion of its Kitimat, BC, operation had been approved but that the joint venture was planning to use Chinese steel for the project’s major components.LNG Canada said the country lacks the specialized fabrication facilities needed to manufacture the massive modules required for its expansion and plans to buy more components from state-owned China Offshore Oil Engineering Co. Ltd. (COOEC), which manufactured modules for the project’s first phase.The new expansion will double the facility’s annual production capacity from 14 million to 28 million tonnes, with completion expected in the early 2030s.“It’s one thing to criticize it for coming in. But if we don’t have the ability to produce it in a timely manner, well, maybe that’s the issue,” Wilson said of the imported steel.“I suspect [Canada doesn’t] have the capacity.”Despite questioning some of the government’s tactics, Wilson remains optimistic that Ottawa could move on his proposal, but he offered no timeline for a possible designation.“My guess right now in all of this is nobody’s opposed to it,” he said.“[Ottawa] just [has to] have enough people in favour of it, and that’s the holdup.”
