Canada is taking a page out of President Donald Trump’s mineral playbook.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson appeared Tuesday alongside Jonathan Price, the head of the Canadian miner Teck Resources, at the company’s massive zinc and lead smelting plant in Trail, British Columbia, to unveil a federally led critical minerals fund worth 2 billion Canadian dollars.
Hodgson, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s energy and natural resources point man, also announced the government had inked its first deal through the fund — an “equity-like investment” focused on bolstering domestic production of critical minerals, including germanium and antimony used in electronics, as well as energy and defense systems.
Hodgson hailed Canada’s mineral wealth as “strategic assets” and called for marshaling the country’s natural resources to counter trade spats and fight an unwanted energy crisis and fast-changing power demands. He didn’t mention Trump by name while referencing the trade conflicts that the president has launched with Canada in his second term.
