Backgrounder: Canada unlocks 26 new investments and partnerships with 9 allied countries to secure critical minerals supply chains

In June 2025 in Kananaskis, Alberta, leaders launched the G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan (CMAP), which aims to establish standards-based markets for critical minerals, drive capital toward critical minerals projects and catalyze innovation across critical minerals supply chains.

Leaders also welcomed the Critical Minerals Production Alliance, a Canada-led G7 initiative to diversify and secure global critical minerals production and supply.

On October 31, 2025, on the margins of the G7 Energy and Environment Ministers’ Meeting in Toronto, the Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, along with G7 and industry partners, announced the first round of strategic projects and measures under the Critical Minerals Production Alliance to accelerate the development and security of critical minerals supply chains. This first round of 26 new investments, partnerships and measures will accelerate and unlock $6.4 billion of critical minerals projects, essential in defence, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing supply chains.

The announced strategic investments and partnerships include:

• Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie Mine near Montreal, Quebec, with offtake arrangements with the Government of Canada, Panasonic (Japan), and Traxys (Luxembourg), as well as an investment intention from the Government of Japan. Collectively, these partnerships will support the diversification of global graphite supply chains and reinforce Canada’s position as a leading supplier of critical minerals. This builds on investments—including more than $35 million from the Canada Growth Fund, a letter of interest from the Canada Infrastructure Bank and a letter of interest for up to US$430 million from Export Development Canada—and additional contributions from Japanese companies Panasonic Energy and Mitsui & Co., to support the company in its journey to create the largest fully integrated natural graphite production facility in North America.
• Rio Tinto’s Scandium Production Plant in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, with an equity-like royalty investment of approximately $25 million from the Canada Growth Fund and an offtake arrangement with the Government of Canada. These commitments will allow the company to expand its current demonstration facility to full-scale commercial production, significantly increasing the reliable supply of scandium to our allies.  
• Ucore Rare Metals Inc.’s facility in Kingston, Ontario, with a conditionally approved investment of up to $36.3 million from the Government of Canada, including up to $26.3 million through Natural Resources Canada and up to $10 million through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, to scale up a first-of-its-kind commercial processing facility in Kingston, Ontario, dedicated to refining two important rare earth elements — samarium and gadolinium. This includes the demonstration of its RapidSX^TM separation and processing technology. Bringing this project to commercial scale fills a significant supply gap and is supported by end customers Vacuumshmelze (Germany) and Permag (United States) with a Memorandum of Understanding, fuelled by rare earth feedstock procurement with Hastings and ABx (Australia), and a definitive technology agreement to broaden processing inputs with e-waste and tailings with Metallium (Australia). In addition to the federal investments, the Government of Ontario is also committed to advancing the necessary regulatory permitting to accelerate the development of this project. 
• Torngat Metals’ Strange Lake project in Quebec, with an offtake and technology collaboration agreement with Carester (France) for the production and processing of rare earth elements.
• Vianode’s synthetic graphite facility in St. Thomas, Ontario, with a letter of interest for up to US$500 million in potential financing from Export Development Canada, a letter of interest from the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and a letter of interest from the German government for the potential support of the project with an export credit guarantee amount of up to US$300 million. The company already has an offtake agreement with GM (United States).
• Northern Graphite, the only natural graphite producing company in North America at its Lac des Iles project near Montreal, Quebec, with a letter of intent for an offtake and toll processing agreement with Alkeemia (Italy), a graphite purification pilot plant in Porto Marghera. This arrangement would also support the implementation of Alkeemia’s technology at Northern Graphite’s planned anode facilities in France and Quebec.

These strategic announcements build upon new critical minerals collaboration with allies:

• UK Export Finance is working closely with its Canadian counterpart, Export Development Canada, and with Natural Resources Canada to explore financial support for critical minerals projects that will help secure future supply chains for the UK and support Canada’s mining sector and high-growth industries.
• ENI (Italy) also intends to enter the strategic production and supply chain of critical minerals through investment opportunities in Canadian lithium, graphite, and start‑ups with innovative technologies for refining rare earths and recycling critical materials from spent batteries or production waste. Building off the Greenland Resources and Cogne Acciai Speciali SpA (Italy) Memorandum of Understanding for the long-term supply of molybdenum for steel production, other Italian steel producers are evaluating the project to support the European Union’s goal of security of supply.
• Canada and Australia signed a Joint Declaration of Intent on Critical Minerals Cooperation acknowledging the significance of critical minerals for economic and national security of both countries, including for defence applications, the energy transition, clean technology and advanced manufacturing. It also identifies areas for increased cooperation, including in project financing, technology development and deployment, policy and regulatory alignment, information sharing and supply chain resilience.

As part of the G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan, Minister Hodgson also highlighted up to $20.2 million in support of critical minerals research and development projects developed in collaboration with international partners. These projects include:

• Focus Graphite’s chemical-free electrothermal purification project, supported by a conditionally approved investment of up to $14.1 million from Natural Resources Canada’s Global Partnerships Initiative. In collaboration with Ukraine’s Thermal & Material Engineering Center (TMEC) and American Energy Technologies Company (AETC), the initiative will demonstrate Canada’s first high-temperature electrothermal purification process for natural flake graphite sourced from the Lac Knife and Lac Tétépisca deposits — two of North America’s highest-grade graphite resources. High-purity natural flake graphite is used in lithium-ion battery anodes, battery energy storage systems (BESS), fuel cells, aerospace components and advanced materials for defence and infrastructure.
• Northern Graphite and Rain Carbon Canada’s research project on upcycled natural graphite for fast-charging, long-life lithium battery technology, with $860,000 in funding through the National Research Council of Canada’s Canada–Germany Collaborative Industrial Research and Development Program to explore how to turn leftover natural graphite from mining into high-quality material used in battery anodes.
• PH7 Technologies and York University’s project with the National Research Council of Canada, Technische Universität Braunschweig, H.C. Starck Tungsten Gmbh, Fraunhofer IST (Germany), with up to $900,000 through the National Research Council of Canada’s “3+2” Canada-Germany Collaborative Industrial Research and Development Program to support the development of an AI-optimized metallurgical process to recover battery metals and support sustainable lithium-ion battery recycling.
• Telescope Innovations Corp.’s lithium-ion battery conversion and low-cost lithium sulfide manufacturing projects, with up to $3.36 million in total investments by the Government of Canada. The company is receiving up to $319,200 through the National Research Council of Canada (NRC)’s Industrial Research Assistance Program for its project with CellMine (United Kingdom) to develop a process for converting spent lithium-ion batteries into battery grade lithium carbonate and cathode active material to improve the ability to reuse these materials, reducing waste and further enhancing the sustainability of battery technologies. This funding is being delivered as part of NRC’s collaboration with the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) program to support research and development projects focused on circular solutions for critical minerals and their supply chains. The company is also conditionally approved for an investment of up to $3.04 million under Natural Resources Canada’s Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration (CMRDD) Program for their project to scale up and pilot a low-cost method to manufacture lithium sulphide, required to produce solid-state lithium batteries. Solid-state batteries, which offer longer lasting and faster-charging options for electric vehicles, will enable and build Canada’s lithium supply chain.
• Excir Works Corp.’s project with Royal Mint UK and WEEE Scotland Ltd. (United Kingdom), with $500,000 through the National Research Council of Canada (NRC)’s Industrial Research Assistance Program for their project to expand the variety of metals that can be recovered through recycling to increase the reuse of these vital materials. This funding is being delivered as part of NRC’s collaboration with the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) program to support research and development projects.
• NTwist Inc.’s project with Vale Europe Ltd. and Tunley Environmental Ltd. (United Kingdom), with $500,000 through the National Research Council of Canada (NRC)’s Industrial Research Assistance Program for their project to improve nickel production and efficiency. This funding is being delivered as part of NRC’s collaboration with the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) program to support research and development projects.