Why Can’t Canada Fund Its Own Critical Minerals Supply Chain?
Despite holding the geological keys to the green energy transition, a historical obsession with gold and a severe lack of downstream investment are costing Canada the global race for battery metals.
Canada has a classic "water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink" problem, only instead of oceans, the country is drowning in lithium, copper, and graphite. Despite sitting on some of the world's most coveted geological real estate for the green energy transition, the Great White North is struggling to find the cash to actually dig it up and refine it.
According to a sobering new report from RBC, Canada has funnelled a mere 11% of its mining capital into critical minerals over the past 25 years. Where did the rest go? Exactly where you would expect: the glittering allure of gold and precious metals, which gobbled up 70% of the more than C$700 billion raised in mining equity and M&A since the turn of the millennium. The result is a widening chasm between Canada and global peers like Australia, who have aggressively lapped the Canadian market by directing more than twice as much capital toward battery metals over the exact same period.

