Canada stands at a crossroads. The world’s demand for critical minerals—the building blocks of electric vehicles, renewable energy, advanced computing, and defence systems—is projected to double by 2030. Yet while other nations scramble to secure these strategic resources, Canada risks squandering a generational advantage through complacency and a reluctance to protect its most vital assets from predatory foreign interests.
The time has come for Canada to double down on investing in critical minerals supply chains and implementing robust protections against foreign acquisition of our strategic companies. This is not protectionism—it is prudent national policy in an era where economic security and national security have become inseparable.
The Strategic Imperative
Global critical minerals markets are often concentrated in a handful of countries, leaving supply chains exposed to economic disruptions and predatory actions by non-market economies seeking to control these markets and achieve foreign policy goals. China’s dominance is particularly stark: it controls over 80% of global tungsten supply and more than 90% of lithium-iron-phosphate battery production. This concentration represents a strategic vulnerability that Canada and its allies can no longer afford to ignore.
The Investment Canada Act reforms of 2022 marked a turning point. When the government ordered the divestiture of three Chinese state-owned enterprise investments in Canadian critical minerals companies, it sent an unmistakable signal: Canada’s critical minerals are strategic assets contributing to national security, and investments motivated by non-commercial imperatives contrary to Canadian interests will not be tolerated. Additionally, a proposed takeover the mining firm Teck by Anglo American has prompted similar worries – isn’t this exactly the kind of company that should remain under Canadian control?
This was not overreach. It was overdue. Under the new policy framework, applications for acquisitions of control of Canadian businesses involving critical minerals by foreign state-owned enterprises will only be approved on an exceptional basis. The message to Beijing—and to any other regime viewing Canadian resources as pieces on a geopolitical chessboard—is clear: Canada’s natural wealth serves Canadian interests first.
Putting Money Where Policy Is
Rhetoric without resources is meaningless. Fortunately, Canada has begun backing its critical minerals strategy with substantial investment. The federal government committed nearly $4 billion in Budget 2022 to position Canada as a global supplier of choice for critical minerals, complemented by tax credits, infrastructure funding, and research programs designed to build domestic capacity across the entire value chain.
The results are already materializing. Consider the landmark Canada-U.S. co-investments announced in 2024. Fortune Minerals Limited received up to $7.5 million from Canada and $6.4 million from the United States for its NICO cobalt-bismuth-copper-gold project in the Northwest Territories, while Lomiko Metals secured $4.9 million from Ottawa and $8.4 million from Washington for its La Loutre graphite project in Quebec. These investments, structured under the Canada-U.S. Joint Action Plan on Critical Minerals Collaboration, demonstrate how strategic government funding can accelerate projects toward production while deepening continental supply chain integration.
More recently, Northcliff Resources received a $15 million U.S. Defense Production Act award and up to $8.2 million from Natural Resources Canada to advance its Sisson tungsten-molybdenum project in New Brunswick. When developed, this project will help break China’s stranglehold on tungsten—a critical mineral essential for cutting tools, aerospace applications, and military hardware including armour-piercing ammunition.
Just last week, Arianne Phosphate received conditional approval for $735,000 through the Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration program as part of Prime Minister Carney’s $80.3 million G7 investment package. With the world’s largest greenfield phosphate deposit, Arianne is positioned to supply phosphorus for lithium-iron-phosphate batteries—technology increasingly favoured by automakers worldwide—and break North America’s dangerous dependence on Chinese battery supply chains.
The Defence Dimension
What transforms this from industrial policy into national imperative is the defence connection. Since 2021, the United States has invested more than $70 million in Canadian critical minerals projects under the Defense Production Act. This isn’t corporate welfare—it’s recognition that critical minerals are dual-use assets essential for military capabilities.
The defence industry consumes a staggering array of materials, with the Defense Logistics Agency tracking 63 different materials of interest. From rare earth elements in precision-guided munitions to tungsten in tank ammunition, Canada’s mineral wealth directly enables the defence industrial base that protects North American security.
Canada’s critical minerals strategy has consciously recentered around security in 2025, emphasizing resilience against Chinese market manipulation, strengthened defence industrial supply chains, and leveraging resource endowment to enhance relations with allies. As Canada works toward meeting its NATO spending commitments, critical minerals investment should be recognized as a defence expenditure—because that’s exactly what it is.
Protecting What We’ve Built
Investment without protection is building a house on sand. Canada must remain vigilant against foreign actors—particularly state-owned enterprises from authoritarian regimes—seeking to acquire control of our critical minerals companies and infrastructure. The participation of a foreign state-owned enterprise in any investment involving a Canadian business operating in critical minerals sectors will support a finding that there are reasonable grounds to believe the investment could be injurious to Canada’s national security.
This framework must be maintained and, where necessary, strengthened. The 2022 Neo Lithium case—where Ottawa failed to block a Chinese state-owned enterprise acquisition that proved politically controversial—taught us the cost of hesitation. We cannot repeat that mistake.
Ontario has taken the lead, introducing measures in April 2025 to prevent foreign governments or corporations from claiming the province’s critical minerals. Other provinces should follow suit. This isn’t economic nationalism run amok—it’s recognition that in a world where adversarial powers weaponize economic dependencies, resource sovereignty equals strategic sovereignty.
The Path Forward
Canada is blessed with an embarrassment of mineral riches: we produce over 60 minerals and metals, including 22 of the 50 minerals listed as critical by the U.S. Geological Survey, and are a leading global producer of nickel, potash, aluminum, and uranium. We host nearly half the world’s publicly listed mining companies. We maintain world-leading environmental, social, and governance standards.
These advantages mean nothing if we lack the will to capitalize on them. China didn’t dominate critical minerals through geological luck—it did so through decades of strategic investment, vertical integration, and ruthless acquisition of foreign assets. Canada must match that strategic vision with our own—one rooted in democratic values, allied partnerships, and recognition that economic security and national security are two sides of the same coin.
The federal government’s recent investments in Fortune Minerals, Lomiko Metals, Northcliff Resources, and Arianne Phosphate represent down payments on Canada’s critical minerals future. But they’re only a beginning. We need expanded infrastructure funding, accelerated permitting processes, deeper integration with trusted allies, and unwavering commitment to protecting strategic assets from hostile foreign acquisition.
The stakes could not be higher. Critical minerals will determine which nations lead in the technologies defining the 21st century—and which nations become dangerously dependent on geopolitical rivals. Canada has the geology, the expertise, and the institutional capacity to be a critical minerals superpower. What we need now is the political courage to act like one.
The world doesn’t owe Canada prosperity. We must earn it—by investing in our strategic advantages and defending them against those who would exploit them. Our critical minerals are national treasures. Let’s start treating them that way.
– The above opinion was drafted by the editorial board of the Bay St. Signal
