The Canadian government is setting up a critical minerals stockpile designating a list of six key critical minerals as strategic priorities under the Defence Production Act, a move intended to help Canadian producers compete with China by setting minimum prices for the materials and giving companies some certainty of long-term sales.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson made the announcement Friday on the sidelines of a G7 energy and environment ministers' meeting in Toronto. The official statement did not identify specific critical minerals, but CBC cites copper, lithium, graphite, cobalt, nickel, and rare earths as resources for which demand could grow dramatically in the years ahead.
"We need to create the certainty of demand and the certainty pricing so that those mines and processing facilities can get built," Hodgson told a news conference Friday. The announcement also "enables Canada to launch our own defence stockpiling regime, and to support multilateral stockpiling efforts," he added.
On Friday, Hodgson announced an initial round of 26 "investments, partnerships, and measures" aimed at unlocking $6.4 billion worth of critical mineral development. The actual investments totalled about $120 million, along with offtake agreements, expressions of interest. or export guarantees totalling up to about $1.2 billion. Specific projects included:
The Nouveau Monde graphite mine near Montreal;
Rio Tinto's scandium production demonstration site in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec;
Ucore's samarium and gadolinium production plant in Kingston;
Torngat Metals' rare earth production project in Quebec;
Vianode's synthetic graphite plant in St. Thomas, Ontario;
North America's only natural graphite producer, Northern Graphite, for a project near Montreal;
A half-dozen smaller research projects that connect Canadian firms with international partners.
Mining Association of Canada President Pierre Gratton told CBC the state intervention was needed to help companies get launched. "Some commodities where China dominates, you can't get a project off the ground. We have projects across the country that can't get financing because they're seen to be too vulnerable," he said. "China can swoop in tomorrow, lower prices, and the project is dead on arrival."
"In the past few years, China's share of the market has continued to grow at the same time as the need for these critical minerals becomes more important-in a wide range of growing technologies, like battery-electric vehicles and solar panels," CBC writes.
On Thursday, Canada headed up talks to establish a G7 critical mineral production alliance in what's widely seen as a bid to check China's reign over a supply chain key to everything from wind turbines to fighter jets, The Canadian Press reports.
Hodgson said the critical minerals pact will look at countering market manipulation and price volatility in the sector.
The alliance "demonstrates that competitiveness and conscience can-and must-coexist," Hodgson said as he opened two-day talks with G7 energy and environment ministers in Toronto.
Pressure has been mounting on countries to diversify their supply of critical minerals as China has used its dominant position to tighten exports on rare earth elements often used in magnets for electric vehicles, cell phones, advanced radar, and a range of other products.
Just hours before the G7 ministerial talks in Toronto, China announced it had agreed to pause those export restrictions for one year as part of a deal with the United States.
University of Ottawa professor Wolfgang Alschner said the deal would help buy the G7 some time, easing what was "an immediate national security crisis into a high priority policy problem."
But he says it changes nothing about the fundamental issues with China's dominance.
"In a time where geopolitical tensions are rising and where one country can essentially shut off industrial production and even defence protection to the rest of the world, that's a huge problem," said Alschner, who studies Canada's critical mineral strategy.
The International Energy Agency says China accounted for about 60% of global rare earth mining last year, and 91% of global refining production, CP says. CBC published a chart that showed China accounting for 94% of the world's refined graphics, 92% of the rare earths and manganese, 78% of the cobalt, 72% of the purified phosphoric acid (PPA), 71% of the lithium, 44% of the copper, and 31% of the nickel.
CP says Canada is trying to leverage its large reserves and its position as a hub for world's mining companies to become a key player in the race for the critical minerals needed to power the energy transition. The federal government has pledged almost $4 billion to its critical mineral strategy, with Prime Minister Mark Carney making frequent references to the sector's importance.
Demand for lithium, for example, which is critical to battery and electrical vehicle production, could grow by 11 and 17 times by 2050, according to an IEA forecast.
A key question will be whether the United States' "extremely active" pursuit of mineral security will translate into broader partnerships with other G7 countries, he said.
Donald Trump has in the past two weeks signed mineral deals with Australia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Japan.
While Canada has been "a little bit sidelined," the G7 talks represent a "major opportunity" for Canada as the only resource-heavy mining nation in the pact outside the U.S., Alschner, the university's Hyman Soloway Chair in Business and Trade Law, told CP.
"Is Canada going to be able to deliver and what's the role of the United States? Those are going to be the big takeaways," he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2025.
Source: The Energy Mix
