Canada prepares new critical minerals announcement as Carney puts global investment drive behind mining expansion
By Shahnoor Saqib I SCN NEWS
OTTAWA — Canada is preparing another critical-minerals announcement this week as Prime Minister Mark Carney's government accelerates an increasingly coordinated effort to attract global capital into mining, processing and infrastructure projects, positioning the country's mineral resources as a central pillar of its push for greater economic independence and diversified trade. Natural Resources Canada said Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson will deliver a critical minerals update in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on Wednesday, September 2, although the government has not yet disclosed what the announcement will contain.
The advance notice comes at a significant moment in Ottawa's mining strategy. On Monday, Carney appointed Dominic Barton, chair of global mining giant Rio Tinto, as chair of Invest in Canada, while investment executive Gurinder Grewal was named the federal investment agency's new chief executive. The government said the revamped agency will work directly with some of the world's largest investors to bring billions of dollars into Canadian critical minerals, energy, artificial intelligence and infrastructure, guiding projects from investor interest to what Ottawa describes as “shovels in the ground.”
The appointments are part of a much larger investment strategy. Carney's government says it wants to catalyse $1 trillion in total investment in Canada over the next five years, reducing dependence on any single trading partner while developing sectors where Canada has strategic advantages. Invest in Canada will coordinate closely with the government's Major Projects Office and provincial, territorial, Indigenous and municipal governments, effectively giving Ottawa another mechanism for connecting international capital with projects the federal government considers economically or strategically important.
Critical minerals are rapidly emerging as one of the clearest examples of that approach. At the PDAC convention earlier this year, Canada announced 30 new partnerships and investments involving 12 allied partners that were expected to unlock $12.1 billion in critical-minerals projects. Combined with an earlier round announced in 2025, Ottawa said the Critical Minerals Production Alliance was helping mobilize approximately $18.5 billion in Canadian projects, linking domestic mining development increasingly closely to allied supply-chain and national-security objectives.
Ottawa has since added another financing mechanism. In July, Hodgson launched the Canada Critical Minerals Accelerator, designed specifically to catalyse private investment and move strategic projects toward production faster. Its first strategic investment agreement involved Teck Resources' Trail Operations in British Columbia, one of the world's largest integrated polymetallic smelting and refining complexes. The government's language surrounding the program has increasingly emphasized not only clean-energy supply chains but economic sovereignty and national security, reflecting the geopolitical competition surrounding minerals used in batteries, advanced manufacturing, defence and digital technologies.
The strategy is also moving beyond mines themselves. Earlier this month Ottawa committed nearly $5 million toward power and transportation planning needed to connect First Phosphate's proposed Bégin-Lamarche phosphate mine in Quebec to regional rail infrastructure and the Port of Saguenay. The company is matching the federal contribution, while Canada previously provided $16.7 million for demonstration and feasibility work related to producing battery-grade phosphorous. The mine is expected to enter production in 2029 if development proceeds as planned.
A much larger infrastructure strategy is taking shape in eastern Canada. On August 17, Carney announced approximately $70 billion in projects combining clean electricity, mining, transmission, transport and export infrastructure, including development of the mineral-rich Labrador Trough. Ottawa referred the corridor to the Major Projects Office and identified graphite and high-grade iron ore projects alongside expanded rail, port and electricity capacity, arguing that mines cannot become globally competitive unless Canada simultaneously builds the infrastructure required to power them and move their output to international customers.
Private mining capital is already moving into some established districts. On August 27, the federal government highlighted Glencore's approximately $2 billion investment in the Craig Mine near Sudbury, where completion of the Onaping Depth shaft has opened access to nickel ore ahead of planned production later this year. Ottawa described the development as part of what it calls a new era of “sovereign critical minerals production,” linking Canadian nickel and other resources with secure supply chains for advanced manufacturing, clean technologies and defence.
Canada is simultaneously trying to expand those relationships abroad. Officials participated last week in the Conference of Mining Ministries of the Americas in Santiago, Chile, where Ottawa promoted investment opportunities for Canadian companies and deeper critical-minerals cooperation with Chile. The government is increasingly presenting Canada not simply as a source of raw material but as an allied jurisdiction capable of providing mining, processing, technology and financing within supply chains that reduce strategic dependence on less reliable suppliers.
Financing remains one of the central obstacles. Export Development Canada says it supported more than 300 customers and facilitated approximately $8.7 billion in business across Canada's critical-minerals sector in 2025, up from $7.9 billion a year earlier. EDC says it is now prepared to take greater risk and provide support earlier in the development cycle, including pre-construction financing — precisely the stage at which many mineral discoveries struggle to attract enough capital to become operating mines.
That gap between Canada's enormous geological potential and the speed at which deposits reach commercial production remains the central test of Ottawa's strategy. Building a mine can require years of environmental review, Indigenous consultation, financing, roads, electricity and processing infrastructure. The government's emerging response is therefore broader than simply subsidizing extraction: it is combining foreign investment promotion, federal financing, allied partnerships, accelerated project coordination and infrastructure spending in an attempt to move more deposits through the development pipeline.
Wednesday's announcement in Saskatchewan will provide the next indication of how aggressively Ottawa intends to pursue that strategy. The government has disclosed only that Hodgson will provide a “critical minerals update,” meaning the substance should not be predicted before it is announced. But its timing — two days after Carney placed a global mining executive at the head of Canada's investment-promotion agency and explicitly tasked that organization with attracting critical-minerals capital — places the Saskatoon event inside a much broader shift: Canada is attempting to convert mineral deposits from a geological advantage into investment, infrastructure and producing mines before competing jurisdictions capture the capital.