As PDAC 2026 brought the global mining industry to Toronto for four days of networking, investment, and insight, a lot has been happening behind the scenes as Canadian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson, announced a wave of partnerships and investments under the country’s Critical Minerals Production Alliance.
On 2 March 2026, 30 new critical minerals partnerships and investments were announced, unlocking C$12.1 billion ($12.4 billion) in mining project capital.
In the run up to this year’s PDAC, President Karen Rees stated that “PDAC 2026 comes amid intensifying global competition to secure the critical minerals underpinning modern economies”.
We’re seeing this enhanced competition playing out this week as Canada moves to advance priority critical minerals projects and works to get these critical minerals out to market.
This is the second round of funding in a C$18.5 billion strategy by Canada to strengthen national supply chains, support economic growth, and reduce strategic vulnerabilities in the market.
Minister Hodgson also highlighted up to C$64.8 million for research and development projects under the Global Partnership Initiative (GPI), including up to C$6.91 million for Scandium Canada’s (TSX-V:SCD) Crater Lake, as previously reported.
The non-refundable contribution through the GPI represents 69% of the total project costs and will be used to scale up the company’s patent-pending processes for beneficiation, extraction, and purification of scandium and rare earths.
On the sidelines of PDAC this year, we also saw a number of strategic cooperation agreements focused on aligning Canada with other major global markets.
Minister Hodgson met with the Executive Vice President of the European Commission Stéphane Séjourné to advance EU-Canada cooperation for critical raw materials and industrial policy, reaffirming the EU-Canada Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials.
A Letter of Intent was signed on 2 March between the European Investment Bank and the Government of Canada for further cooperation on critical raw materials.
In a time of heightened competition to secure critical raw materials and downstream processing capabilities, cooperation is increasingly becoming a strategic necessity for governments and miners alike as they work to secure stable, diversified supply chains and accelerate project development to meet growing global demand.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: PDAC
