When Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a group of executives that US President Donald Trump wasn’t kidding about annexing Canada, he offered one reason: critical minerals.
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Canada is rich in nearly three dozen critical minerals essential to modern technology and produces more than 60 minerals and metals including nickel, potash, aluminium and uranium.
The deposits are strewn across the country, which has a land mass about as big as all of Europe and second only to Russia. Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, is rich in nickel, chromite and copper. Quebec has lithium, rare earth metals and graphite.
British Columbia has copper, molybdenum and niobium. The prairie provinces – Saskatchewan and Manitoba – have ultra high-grade uranium and potash. Much of this material ends up in the US, which was the biggest buyer of Canada’s critical minerals in 2023.
Since his election in November, Trump repeatedly has said Canada could avoid tariffs by becoming the 51st state. His move to lower his initial tariffs threats on raw materials in January – calling for 10 per cent on imports instead of 25 per cent, like most other Canadian goods – was a nod to the country’s reliance on its northern neighbour’s resources.
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About a quarter of US uranium needs are fulfilled by gigantic mines in Saskatchewan, owned by companies like Cameco Corp. More than 80 per cent of US potash comes from Canada, including from Nutrien Ltd. And about 70 per cent of US aluminium is supplied by plants in Quebec and British Columbia.