This month’s Canada Investment Summit offered a glimpse into which industries could play the biggest role in the country’s economic future.
Of the 167 projects pitched to investors at the 14–15 September summit, mining was by far the largest category, accounting for 63 projects. Critical minerals were a recurring theme.
While its critical minerals strategy dates back to 2022, the federal government has since gone further with new initiatives and measures aimed at making supply security a nationwide priority.
Under Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada has stepped up efforts to unlock its vast mineral resources as it looks to strengthen domestic supply chains and reduce its reliance on foreign sources.
A major part of that push is last year’s launch of the Major Projects Office (MPO). The office is tasked with coordinating and accelerating projects considered strategically important to Canada.
Since September 2025, a total of 27 nation-building initiatives — including mines, ports, and energy corridors — have been referred to the MPO. These initiatives represent around C$500 billion ($503.8 billion) in potential private investment.
Mining projects referred to the office include McIlvenna Bay in Saskatchewan, the Red Chris Mine expansion in British Columbia, and the Matawinie Graphite Project in Québec.
Canada moves to speed up projects
Ottawa is also proposing significant changes to the way major projects are assessed.
Shortly after the summit, Carney’s government introduced Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act.
If passed, this would establish a one-year timeline for federal reviews and decisions once a project proponent has submitted a comprehensive application and all required information.
The proposed reforms would also introduce a ‘one-window’ approach and greater coordination between federal assessments and permitting.
The shift is being noticed across Canada’s mining sector.
Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX:AEM) CEO Ammar Al-Joundi says the current government is promoting economic development “across the entire spectrum of opportunities, including resources”.
In a recent In the Money podcast, the chief executive of Canada’s top gold producer recalls receiving a message from Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson shortly after Carney took office, contrasting the engagement with the previous years.
“In the previous 10 years, we couldn’t get anybody to come up with a multi-billion dollar announcement of an investment in Canada,” he recounts.
The Canada Investment Summit itself resulted in nearly C$500 billion in announced investment commitments, according to the federal government.
Speaking at the summit, Carney said Canada had signed more than 50 critical-minerals agreements with over 15 countries during the previous year, unlocking C$20 billion in investment.
The goal, he said, is to reduce Canada’s exposure to “foreign chokeholds in critical supply chains”.
“We have what the world wants: the energy, the resources, the talent, the technology, and the capital,” Carney said following the summit.
Mining moves north
Canada is already one of the world’s major mining centres, hosting about half of the world’s publicly listed mining and exploration companies.
However, British Columbia, Ontario, Québec, and Saskatchewan account for around three-quarters of domestic exploration spending and 85% of capital expenditure.
That leaves significant potential elsewhere, particularly in the Northwest Territories. Premier R. J. Simpson has said that the North has an “essential role to play” in Canada’s economic development.
Earlier this year, the NWT Government released an updated mineral potential study evaluating 1,721 mineral showings containing 19 different critical minerals.
The study identified 116 occurrences not captured in previous assessments and highlighted potential for lithium, cobalt, copper, and zinc, alongside the territory’s established gold and diamond endowment.
“The new mineral potential study report deepens our understanding of the untapped resources located throughout the eastern Northwest Territories,” Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment Caitlin Cleveland told reporters at the time.
She went on to highlight the presence of 19 of the 34 minerals on Canada’s list of minerals critical to the economic success of Canada and its allies.
The territory is already home to several advanced critical-minerals projects, including Prairie Creek Project. The project, Cleveland says, stands out as the ‘highest-grade unmined zinc deposit’ that has already attracted substantial federal investment in transportation infrastructure.
Another one was The Pine Point Project, hailed by Cleveland as a potential producer of the cleanest zinc concentrate globally. That is on top of its production potential built on its past history.
Pine Point, being advanced through a joint venture between Osisko Metals (TSX:OM) and Appian Natural Resources Fund III, is one of Canada’s major past-producing zinc assets.
Mining at Pine Point dates back decades. Notably, the operation had produced and shipped 10.8 million tonnes of lead and zinc concentrates between 1965 and 1988.
The brownfield project also benefits from existing infrastructure. This includes access to hydroelectric power, paved highways, an electrical substation, and around 100km of haulage roads.
Taltson revives historic district
Pine Point is not the only brownfield opportunity attracting renewed attention in the region.
Taltson Critical Minerals (CSE:SLZ) is reviving the O’Connor Lake Project, around 185km southeast of Yellowknife and 150km east of Hay River.
The project was extensively developed following the Second World War. It was once positioned for production before zinc and lead prices collapsed, forcing it into care and maintenance.
According to Taltson, the property still contains legacy drill core and historic underground workings that have seen little modern exploration for more than 70 years.
The company is now applying airborne magnetics, 3D geological modelling, and precision geochemistry across the property to develop a modern district-scale model of the Taltson Magmatic Zone.
Exploration has so far outlined an approximate 40km2 mineralised corridor within the company’s 76.25km2 land package. Taltson is also investigating the potential for a much larger hydrothermal system at O’Connor Lake.
Laboratory results from a late-2025 geological review also returned ‘high-grade’, multi-element mineralisation from new structures kilometres away from the historic Shaft Zone.
The company now plans to undertake an expanded airborne magnetic survey to refine targets ahead of drilling.
“We need to be able to penetrate below the surface to see what’s going on,” Taltson CEO Ritch Wigham told Mining.com.au earlier this year.
Wigham has compared the exploration concept at O’Connor Lake with BHP Group’s (ASX:BHP) Olympic Dam system in South Australia, pointing to the importance of geophysics in identifying mineralisation hidden beneath the surface.
For Canada, unlocking projects in underexplored regions such as the Northwest Territories could become an important part of its broader push to expand domestic critical-minerals production.
The geology is already there. The challenge now is turning that mineral potential into new mines, infrastructure, and supply.
Write to Jackson Chen at Mining.com.au
Main Image: Mining.com.au
