Teck-Anglo focus on critical minerals to bode well for regulatory review: experts

Teck's zinc and lead smelting and refining complex, left, is pictured in Trail, B.C., on Monday Nov. 26, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

TORONTO — The proposed merger between Teck Resources Ltd. and Anglo American PLC to create a $70 billion critical minerals-focused giant comes as Canada also works to boost output of the elements, a trend experts say could help the companies gain regulatory approval.

The two companies are pitching the deal announced earlier this week as creating a champion of the metals that are key to the energy transition, including about a 70 per cent focus on copper to create what would be the fifth-largest producer in the world, headquartered in Vancouver.

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Meanwhile, both the federal and provincial governments have been working on ways to fast-track the production of more critical minerals, and leaders at the G7 in June highlighted how the elements are the “building blocks of digital and energy secure economies of the future” as they launched a critical minerals action plan.

The alignment of Teck’s proposal with government priorities will give it a boost during the review of the proposed deal with Anglo American, said John Steen, director of the Bradshaw Research Institute for Minerals and Mining at UBC.

“The critical minerals backdrop to all of this is going to help,” he said.

“The possibility of this company contributing greatly to the expansion of copper production globally is significant.”

The combined scale of Teck and Anglo American, in what’s to be known as Anglo Teck, will likely help it develop some projects that have long been pending in British Columbia because of their scale and big costs, he said.

“What a larger company can do is it will bring the mines into production faster.”

The two companies have committed about $4.5 billion in spending in Canada over five years as part of the deal, though a significant portion of that has already been announced by Teck including the mine life extension of its Highland Valley copper mine. The company is set to officially start construction Thursday on the $2.4 billion project.

There’s also a $750 million spending commitment for the so-called Golden Triangle in northwest B.C., where Teck part-owns both the Galore Creek and Schaft Creek projects. Teck halted development of the Galore Creek mine back in 2007 because of rising capital costs and development timelines, and it still hasn’t seen production.

Spending promises also include $750 million for the Trail smelter for a strategic metals initiative, which could see it add copper refining to the existing lead and zinc production.

Metals like copper are considered critical not just because they’re so necessary, but because so much smelting capacity has been shifted offshore, especially to China, said Steen.

“Copper is probably the most at risk of the critical metals,” he said.

“So onshoring, re-onshoring that production to make sure we have a stable and reliable supply chain is going to be really important.”

Adding more refining capacity could also help boost production in B.C., said Mark Cameron, a fellow at the Public Policy Forum.

“More processing at Trail, that probably helps other producers as well.”

He said the critical minerals element will certainly play a role in the regulatory review, which will look at whether the deal is a net positive for Canada.

“Everyone is woken up to the challenge of critical minerals,” he said.

Copper is key, but doesn’t face the same funding and development challenges of some of the more specialty minerals that are dominated by Chinese production, said Cameron. Some of those specialty minerals include gallium, magnesium and tungsten.

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“Some of the more exotic critical minerals, the problem is that it’s very easy for China to basically control and manipulate the market.”

He sees the need for the federal government to create a stockpile program or otherwise find ways to establish a price floor to make the business case firmer to develop them.

The Teck deal could help on that front as well though. Teck specifically noted in its announcement that there’s opportunity to significantly increase germanium and other specialty critical minerals production from Trail, and that it would support the establishment of new critical minerals processing facilities in Canada.

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Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2025.