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UPDATED: Jan 16 with new quotes on critical mineral price floor.
Canada wants to accelerate the critical mineral strategic alliance with the US, according to key officials, as the country works to persuade incoming President Trump not to impose significant trade tariffs.
Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s Energy Minister, has proposed developing more critical mineral projects to replace the Chinese supply chain, including a suggest price floor for critical minerals, as well as purchasing military hardware from the US.
“We cannot be in a position where China can simply manipulate the market. If we want mines to be developed, investors will have to have some degree of certainty that the products they’re producing are going to have value. And if China can simply intervene and crater the price you will never see the development of critical minerals. But this cannot be addressed by one country on its own”
— Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources, Q&A at Woodrow Wilson Center
The Minister suggests the idea of a price floor and critical mineral alliance will be on the agenda at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in June 2025 — and even expanded out to a G7+ to include Australia.
“It’s a price floor to address the manipulation [of critical mineral prices by China], but there’s also a concurrent conversation around how do you ensure, particularly concerning democratic countries who will be purchasers of critical minerals, that there is an accounting for the environmental and labour standards associated with our production… that needs to be built into that conversation about pricing”.
The US is, by far, the largest destination for critical mineral exports from Canada — totaling 56% of Canada’s total mineral exports of CAD$150.7 billion.
The move comes after President Trump threatened 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports to the US.
Doug Ford, the premier of Canada’s Ontario province, has also weighed in, with a new proposal to establish a new “Am-Can Critical Mineral Security Alliance” that invests in and builds out American and Canadian critical mineral supply chains and processing capacity.
The proposal includes:
- accelerated federal and provincial regulatory approval timelines, with a “one project-one process permitting approach to all resource development in Canada”
- designating areas where multiple critical minerals are present or likely to be present, such as the Ring of Fire region in Ontario, as regions of strategic importance to the national security of Canada and the US, with special approval processes
- investment in roads, highways and other infrastructure required to access, develop and operate new critical minerals mines and processing facilities
- establishing a cross-border working group on mineral price stability
The US and Canada already have a significant investment ties — worth billions of dollars — especially through the US Department of Defence in the critical mineral sector. For example, most recently, the US$15.8 million award to Canadian company Fireweed Metals Corp for tungsten.
However, not everyone agrees.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) leader, Jagmeet Singh, wants to stop critical mineral exports to the US in response to the threat of tariffs.
“I’m calling on all political leaders to support turning off the taps on those critical minerals. Let’s stop the flow of those critical minerals into the States. There’s no quicker way to get Donald Trump to back away from tariffs”
— Jagmeet Singh, NDP party leader
Our analysis on plugging Canada into America’s electric battery belt:
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