AI Analysis: Value of shipments of metallic and non-metallic minerals, monthly

Executive Summary

Canada's metallic and non-metallic mineral shipments showed dramatic growth from January 2020 to January 2026, with total monthly shipment values rising nearly 9x from a pandemic low of ~$2.3 billion in April 2020 to a peak of ~$20.2 billion in December 2025. The dataset — spanning 73 months, 16 regions, and 71 mineral products — is heavily skewed by a small number of high-value categories, with gold-related products and aluminum dominating cumulative shipment values. Correlation analysis across 68 mineral products and outlier detection (identifying 14 anomalous data points) further reveal shared market drivers and occasional supply or demand disruptions across the sector.

Key Findings

• Total monthly mineral shipment values grew nearly 9x over the study period, from a pandemic-era low of ~$2.3 billion in April 2020 to a peak of ~$20.2 billion in December 2025.
• The dataset contains 38,904 non-null records with a mean shipment value of ~$22.8 million, but a median of $0, indicating that a small number of high-value products drive the vast majority of total shipment value.
• Gold (recoverable), Gold and silver bullion, Aluminum, Gold (refined), and Potash (MOP) are the top 5 products by shipment value, with gold-related categories collectively dominating Canada's mineral export landscape.
• The standard deviation of ~$163 million — more than 7x the mean — confirms extreme variability across the 71 mineral product categories tracked monthly.
• A correlation matrix computed across 68 mineral products identified co-movement patterns suggesting shared industrial demand cycles, commodity price dependencies, or regional production linkages.
• Only 14 outlier months were detected out of 2,913 Canada-level records analyzed (~0.5%), identified via z-score method (|z| > 3), pointing to isolated supply disruptions or demand surges rather than systemic data irregularities.
• The dataset covers 836 unique region-by-product time-series vectors across 16 geographic regions, providing granular visibility into both provincial and national mineral shipment trends from January 2020 through January 2026.