Think about the smartphone in your hand. It’s an essential part of modern life, packed with versatile features and incredible computing power. What many Canadians don’t realize is that smartphones depend on resources found right here in Canada: copper, lithium, tin, cobalt, rare earths and more.

These are among the 34 rare-earth minerals that the federal government has designated as critical—vital to our economy and crucial for technologies needed in our transition to a low-carbon future. While we’re world leaders in extracting these resources, we fall short when it comes to capturing their full economic value. Instead of manufacturing the high-tech products that rely on these materials, we mine the raw minerals, ship the bulk of them abroad and then buy back the finished goods at a premium.

We don’t manufacture smartphones here. Instead, we import major brands from countries like China, Japan and South Korea. Canada exports more than $60 billion of critical minerals annually. Meanwhile, the global smartphone market alone is valued at $750 billion. It’s a missed opportunity, lost through decades of economic complacency. We largely take the easy route—selling our critical minerals overseas for a quick profit—while other countries reap most of the economic rewards.

In contrast, the Asian countries we import our smartphones from took a very different path to economic success. After the Second World War, they transformed their agrarian economies into global materials and manufacturing powerhouses through long-term, export-focused industrial strategies. South Korea, for example, didn’t become an economic juggernaut overnight. As recently as the 1960s, it was one of the poorest countries in the world. But through a sustained effort, it built domestic champions like Samsung—now a global powerhouse in everything from electronics to shipbuilding.

Where’s our Canadian Samsung, or........

© Macleans