When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made his recent visit to Australia, he made it a priority to meet with Rio Tinto chief executive officer Simon Trott, alongside a schedule of meetings with Australian political leaders including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The Carney–Trott meeting came shortly after Rio Tinto announced it had taken a majority stake (53.9 per cent) in Nemaska Lithium, a fully integrated spodumene-to-lithium hydroxide development project in Québec, while the Québec Government retains a 46.1 per cent share.
“Rio Tinto remains committed to Québec and Canada because we believe in the country’s potential to become a leader in the industries of the future, and we are determined to continue developing our assets here to supply the materials the world needs,” Rio Tinto aluminium and lithium chief executive Jérôme Pécresse said.
“We signed a series of new agreements on critical minerals, including Australia joining the G7 minerals alliance, the largest grouping of trusted democratic mineral reserves in the world,” Carney said in a speech to Australia’s parliament last week.
While Canada believes the best way to address concentrated critical minerals supply is through a production alliance – or a buyers’ club – rather than relying solely on price floors, as Australia has pursued, the alignment between the two nations remains strong.
Austmine director of international business Dr Robert Trzebski told Australian Mining there are significant synergies between the two countries and their mining industries.
“Australia and Canada are the METS superpowers with their combined market dominance in mining innovation and technology advancement,” Trzebski said.
“Both Australia and Canada being leaders in production of iron ore, gold, lithium, uranium and rare earths positions both countries advantageously in the race for dominance and diversification of the global supply chains.”
“This is a great opportunity for Australia and Canada to strengthen technology and skills exchange, which are badly needed to accelerate collaboration and combat concentration of supply and processing, which is currently dominated by China,” he said
“This deeper engagement will provide solid foundations for the industry not only producing critical and strategic minerals but also developing a resilient METS sector in both countries that will globally lead the transition towards green energy for a sustainable and net-zero future.”
The Canadian began her career with Rio Tinto in 2003 at the Iron Ore Company of Canada operation in northern Labrador in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and before spending more than seven years in increasingly senior roles across BHP’s Western Australian Iron Ore operations.
Pringle said stronger ties between the two countries would benefit the entire mining ecosystem, from technology and services through to project development and supply chains.
“Australia and Canada are two of the world’s most trusted mining jurisdictions, with long histories of developing resources responsibly and at scale,” Pringle told Australian Mining.
Pringle believes the alignment in governance and values between the two countries supports deeper cooperation.
“Our industries share a very similar foundation – strong governance, world-class technical capability, and a clear commitment to responsible mining practices,” she said. “That alignment makes collaboration very natural.
“When two mature mining ecosystems like Australia and Canada work together, it becomes a powerful platform for innovation, knowledge sharing and the development of new technologies that can benefit the global mining industry.”
Beyond the signing of new agreements on critical minerals, several additional undertakings emerged from the recent discussions between the two governments.
The countries agreed to strengthen collaboration on critical minerals investment and standards, while also deepening alignment between Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve and Canada’s Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund.
Resources ministers from both nations will meet annually to progress cooperation outlined in the agreement.
The talks also reaffirmed a commitment to sharing technical expertise on mapping critical mineral deposits and improving extraction and processing capabilities.
A Canada–Australia Mining Skills Exchange Pilot will also be developed in collaboration with industry stakeholders, academic institutions and government partners.
In his speech to the Australian Parliament, Carney highlighted the potential for deeper collaboration in areas such as critical minerals processing, leveraging the complementary strengths of both nations as “critical minerals superpowers”.
“Canada and Australia are the world’s two most reliable and like-minded mining giants,” he said.
“We are both committed to sustainability; we have each developed the most advanced extractive ecosystems all the range from prospecting to engineering, logistics and capital markets; we’re blessed with abundance of foundational metals that power the batteries, the EVs [electric vehicles], the smartphones, the AI [artificial intelligence] systems of this century.
“Together, we produce one-third of global lithium, one-third of global uranium, 40 per cent of iron ore.
“We have a combined war chest right now of $25 billion to fast-track global projects. Globally, we’re one in two as the most attractive mining investment jurisdictions in the world.”
Working together, Australia and Canada may hold the key to greater mining prosperity and more secure critical supply chains for the 21st century.