Few countries evoke their natural landscape quite like Canada. Stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific and into the Arctic, the country's vast forests, mountains, lakes and tundra are among its most enduring symbols. If life sciences showcase Canada's capacity for innovation, nowhere does Carney's assertion that "Canada has what the world wants" become more literal than what lies beneath its feet. 

Gold. Copper. Nickel. Lithium. Beneath Canada's soil lies an extraordinary concentration of 34 critical minerals powering the modern world, from artificial intelligence and defence to electrification and the energy transition.

The long-term nature of mining investments mean the industry is accustomed to weighing risk against reward. Jurisdictions able to offer greater political certainty can command a premium, and Canada finds itself on the favourable side of that ledger, making political stability almost as valuable as geology itself. As Ammar Al-Joundi, President & CEO, Agnico Eagle, puts it, "You can't move this business—discovering, permitting, and building takes years and billions, and then you're there for 20, 30, 40 years."

“Today, geopolitical risk is much more sharply defined. Countries are increasingly focused on their mineral endowment and what they want from mining companies, making it harder and slower to get deals done and bring new properties online,” says Mike Cinnamond, President and CEO, B2Gold, adding that Canada's North, long constrained by geography and limited infrastructure, is drawing revived attention as governments focus more closely on Arctic defence, connectivity and resource development.

Where gold stores value, copper creates it. The metal has become indispensable to electrification, AI, defence and industrial resilience. With China refining around 56% of the world's copper, securing a reliable supply has become a geopolitical imperative.

“Copper is the critical mineral that unlocks greenhouse gas reduction targets and data center ambitions. If Canada is serious about addressing the critical mineral shortage for itself and friendly nations, it should unlock known deposits in British Columbia,” says Cashel Meagher, President & CEO, Capstone Copper. Unlike gold, bringing new copper supply online demands major roads, transmission lines, power generation and sustained investment. If Western nations are serious about reducing their dependence on China, he argues, they need to act. “The scarcity is not in the ground, but in the lack of refining capacity and investment over the past decade.”

For Copper Fox Metals, which is advancing its Schaft Creek project in northwestern British Columbia, President & CEO Elmer Stewart argues that permitting processes remain unnecessarily cumbersome, making it harder for companies to deploy capital and plan exploration confidently. As he puts it, “Everybody says we need critical minerals, but putting together a framework that actually gets them out of the ground and into society is another matter,” adding, “The question isn't demand—it's whether the industry can supply enough copper.”

Nickel occupies a similarly strategic position. Critical for industrial, commercial and defence applications, China and Indonesia control roughly 80% of the global supply. Many of Canada’s most valuable mineral deposits sit on or near Indigenous lands, making genuine partnership vital. Canada Nickel's Crawford Nickel Sulphide Project, identified by Carney as a nation-building initiative, hopes to be a blueprint for how major resource developments can deliver mutual long-term prosperity through its partnership with the Taykwa Tagamou Nation. Mark Selby, CEO, explains, “Indigenous consultation is a core part of Canada's permitting process, and communities will only let projects move forward as quickly as they want them to move forward. When trust exists and communities have complete information, projects move through the process with fewer concerns and greater certainty.” 

Even where partnerships are strong and institutions are stable, investors still need certainty around timelines, and competition for capital is intense. Pointing to countries such as Argentina, Rob McEwen, CEO of McEwen Inc., argues that harder decisions need to be made and delays in the system, whether interprovincial or trade barriers, must be addressed: “We talk about free trade and going out into the world, but we have more barriers between our provinces. Other countries are offering incentives, capital, and enthusiasm—their arms are open wide—which we don’t match. We could do the same.”

If copper reflects today's geopolitical competition, lithium represents tomorrow's possibilities. The metal is abundant, and no single country has yet established the same dominance seen elsewhere in critical minerals. Here, Canada holds a distinct advantage: decades of expertise spanning the entire mining lifecycle, from early-stage exploration through to development and production. Many jurisdictions excel at operating mines; Canada has built a reputation on finding them. Killian Charles, President & CEO, Brunswick Exploration, outlines the potential: “Five years ago, Quebec was not on anyone’s map as a world-class lithium district; today it’s one of the best in the world. That raises the question: how many more Quebecs exist in terms of untapped lithium potential?”

Li-FT Power, a Canadian mineral exploration company advancing its flagship Yellowknife Lithium Project as well as moving into downstream refining, detects a more pragmatic approach emerging under Carney’s government. CEO Francis MacDonald describes Canada's relationship with China as becoming "more nuanced and tactical," recognizing China's lead in downstream processing and refining while Canada focuses on developing its resource base. He adds: “Demand is also shifting: it’s less EV-centric and increasingly driven by battery storage, with demand from AI data centres, solar, wind and grid-scale systems up 80% in 2025 and expected to grow another 50–80% this year.”

The window, however, will not remain open indefinitely. LibertyStream Infrastructure Partners, a Canadian company developing proprietary technology to extract lithium from oilfield wastewater, ultimately chose to scale in Texas after finding the regulatory pathway more conducive to rapid deployment, although it hopes to return. According to Founder, President & CEO Alex Wylie, the window is narrowing: “I’ve always believed we needed to be in production by the end of 2026 or 2027 because there’s a race for lithium production outside China. There’s a supply vacuum elsewhere, and filling that vacuum over the next two years is critical.”

Beyond the mine itself, Canada's critical minerals strategy depends on something equally important: how the country connects those resources to allies and global markets. “This is a brand-new world,” reflects Craig Bell Estabrooks, President & CEO, Port Saint John. The pandemic, supply chain disruptions, tariffs and geopolitical conflict transformed ports and logistics from largely invisible infrastructure into matters of national economic security, exposing just how vulnerable global trade networks had become. He continues: “Today, Canada is looking at how to diversify trade and use its coastal assets to strengthen both Atlantic and Pacific connections while continuing significant north-south trade.”

Backed by the Arctic Infrastructure Fund, the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund, the Canada Strong Fund and 56 strategic mining investments and partnerships, Canada's critical minerals strategy now faces the real test: not what lies underground, but what can actually be built above it.