With growing global conflicts and the ongoing trade war, now is the time for Canada’s resource sector to shine.
During an impassioned fireside chat with the Council on Foreign Relations, held on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly late last year, Prime Minister Mark Carney touted the nation as a rock-steady trading partner, firmly stating Canada “has what the world wants.” Barely six months into his tenure as the nation’s 24th Prime Minister, Carney spoke at a pivotal point in history, with the ongoing war in Ukraine, Middle East conflicts, and a dizzying array of confusing tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Canadian exports like steel, aluminum, and other materials.
Carney cited Canada’s strengths and many valuable resources, including being “an energy superpower in clean and conventional energies,” a leading artificial intelligence (AI) developer, committed to human rights, and “among the top five producers of the most important critical minerals.”
In 2025, Canada’s total minerals and metals exports amounted to $162 billion: 83 percent metals, 12 percent non-metals, and the remaining five percent coal and coke. This represented a four percent increase in total mineral exports. A piece published in Policy magazine titled Building Canada’s Place in the New Critical Minerals Order (July 30, 2026) discussed the urgent need for the country to update its 2022 Critical Minerals Strategy.
Underscoring China’s critical-mineral concentration, the article stressed how much the world changed in just a few years. “Governments are now using export controls, investment screening, tariffs, procurement, stockpiles, and public financing as instruments of economic security,” wrote Vina Nadjibulla, Vice President of Research and Strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Among other areas, Nadjibulla underscored the need for “a renewed North American bargain that protects Canada’s place in U.S. mineral and industrial supply chains,” adding, “Any national strategy must reflect both the depth of Canada’s critical-minerals relationship with the United States and the increasingly differentiated geography of its exports.”
Prior to President Trump’s latest tariff salvos, Canada remained a major exporter of critical minerals to the United States. A country rich in resources, Canada is known worldwide for everything from energy, such as oil reserves, crude bitumen, natural gas and potash, to agricultural products like wheat and canola, and forest and freshwater products. On the mineral side, the nation is renowned as a producer and exporter of critical minerals, including gold, diamonds, aluminum, copper, nickel, iron ore, and the chemical element uranium, often found alongside critical minerals.
According to Natural Resources Canada, Canada exported $49.4 billion CAD in critical minerals in 2025, an increase of three percent from the previous year. Of that total, $28.8 billion CAD went to the United States—about 57 percent of Canada’s critical-minerals exports, down from 63 percent in 2024, when exports to the U.S. totalled $30.7 billion CAD. That share remains substantial, but it is notably below the 71.7 percent of all Canadian goods exports that went to the United States in 2025, meaning Canada’s critical-minerals trade is already more geographically diversified than its merchandise trade overall.
Prior to proclaiming that Canada has “what the world wants,” Carney stated that, “We must build a new era, and in that era, Canada will prosper.” Considering the present state of relations between Canada and the United States, truer words could not have been spoken.
For decades, Canada and the U.S. were, literally, brothers in arms. Akin to family dynamics, relations were not always amicable, but they were never hostile. Siblings squabble, even duke it out occasionally, but forgive and move on. Those days, it seems, are now over. The Trump Administration is fixated on sourcing critical minerals from other nations, including record-breaking amounts of copper from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), rare earth minerals from Greenland, and other minerals from Latin America. Sourcing from these nations, and others, aligns with Project Vault.
Announced in February, Project Vault was described by the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) as “a supply chain security initiative establishing the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, an independently governed public‑private partnership that will store essential raw materials in facilities across the United States.”
According to EXIM Chairman, John Jovanovic, “Project Vault is designed to support domestic manufacturers from supply shocks, support U.S. production and processing of critical raw materials, and strength[en] America’s critical minerals sector.” Crediting Trump’s leadership, Jovanovic added, “The U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve will help manufacturers in the United States compete, grow, and lead globally while creating jobs domestically, strengthening our economy, and advancing the national interest.”
Garnering interest from some of the world’s biggest consumers of critical minerals like Boeing, Western Digital, and GE Vernova (and receiving approval for a direct loan of up to $10 billion USD), Project Vault is being touted as enabling U.S. manufacturers to “have stable access to critical raw materials during periods of market disruption,” ensure supply chain security, and reduce America’s “dependence on foreign‑controlled supply chains, strengthening the domestic industrial base, and ensuring uninterrupted access to materials essential for advanced manufacturing and critical technologies.”
The Trump Administration’s “America First” policy essentially aims to make the U.S. self-sufficient, with little to no dependence on other countries, and only the years ahead will reveal how successful this plan truly will be. The plan includes expanding domestic oil, coal, nuclear and natural gas production; importing fewer food products; onshoring manufacturing; investing in America’s AI, technology, transportation, logistics, and other industries (to the tune of $11.3 trillion and counting, according to the White House); and imposing sweeping tariffs.
With Trump’s goal of a self-sufficient America, the question remains: where does this leave Canada’s resource sector, especially critical minerals? Responding to questions about the ongoing trade war, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson recently said: “I don’t get mad, I get even.” The question was directed at the Minister during a ground-breaking ceremony for BC Hydro’s North Coast Transmission Line. Scheduled to be operational by 2032, the new line would double the province’s electricity capacity, add fibre optic cable, and expand or upgrade substations. One of the greatest benefits is set to be additional, much-needed electricity for critical mineral mines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments.
“Nothing would make me happier than when the United States asks us for more electricity to say, ‘You know what, we’ve got a lot of mines we need to develop in northern British Columbia,’” Hodgson said in a deliberate swipe at the current U.S. administration. Translation: Canada has what the world wants, and we’re going to speed up development of our resources sector here at home. Good luck.
For the U.S. President, or the head of any other nation for that matter, underestimating Canada’s mineral-rich resources sector is a foolish game. Fourth in the world (after Russia, the U.S., and Saudi Arabia), Canada’s resources are not only abundant but also varied. The country is a leader not just in precious metals but also in rock salt, limestone, gypsum, and potash. A critical fertilizer component, potash recently made the Trump Administration’s hit list of things not to buy from Canada (the planet’s biggest potash producer, at 15 million metric tons annually) any longer. Instead, Trump said the U.S. would source potash from Belarus. The plan is poorly thought out and deeply flawed, for several reasons.
Although not a war zone, Belarus is considered a co-aggressor in Putin’s war on Ukraine by allowing Russian forces use of its airfields, territory, and communication systems, along with human rights violations. This alone means supply chains could be broken at any time. Second, there are the obvious logistical challenges, and costs, of bringing tons of potash from Eastern Europe to the U.S. Third, and most obvious, Belarus is the fourth-largest potash producer, at six million metric tons every year. The United States consumes that amount annually, and it is impossible for Belarus to contractually guarantee all its potash is shipped to America.
With thousands of mines and quarries nationwide, Canada remains a top producer of potash, palladium, titanium concentrate, niobium, and other critical minerals. These products, and others, are increasingly important to today’s manufacturing, in everything from life-saving medical devices to smartphones.
At 200 metric tons produced every year, Canada is the fourth-highest gold-producing country. One of the most precious metals, gold is in skyrocketing demand worldwide. Apart from being a tremendous investment in today’s unsteady economic times, gold is critical to aerospace and defence (satellite components), medical technology (pacemaker wires), and cancer treatment, and it is widely used in the printed circuit boards found in cars and computers.
For Canada’s critical minerals sector, the ongoing trade conflict with the U.S. is an opportunity. With Trump’s stance on tariffs and ‘America First’ unlikely to change, Canada can leverage its bargaining power. For decades, Canada has remained the biggest single-country supplier of minerals and rare earth elements to America, providing the U.S. with almost 80 percent of its potash and 60 to 75 percent of its aluminum. Manufacturing cannot happen without Canada’s minerals.
A final aspect to consider is diversification beyond the U.S. to other markets. For example, the federal government recently created a webpage on “Benefits and opportunities for the Canadian mineral and chemical sector under the Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).” Indonesia remains one of the largest consumers of fertilizers and industrial chemicals.
In 2024, Canada exported about $493 million in plastics, chemicals, and rubber products, “with a focus on potassium-based fertilizers and pharmaceutical raw materials,” according to the government. “The CEPA offers a strategic advantage for Canadian suppliers looking to increase their presence in Indonesia.” And with Canada exporting almost $53.5 million in minerals and metals to Indonesia as of 2024, “The CEPA presents new opportunities for Canadian firms to expand their sales of iron ore, processed minerals, and critical metals.” And as an additional incentive, Canada’s reputation for eco-friendly industrial chemicals and mining practices is well-known, and important as the planet shifts toward greener alternatives.
Canada has “what the world wants.” Now the country needs to make other nations aware of that fact.
