Mining & Energy An insiders look at the Mining & Energy industry https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/ Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:04:00 +0000 Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2026-04-10T16:00:00Z 2026-04-10T16:04:00Z Economy World Energy Copyright 2026, Mining & Energy https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/publication/logo/7c330e97-f483-40c2-b0e5-194430766797/placeholder256.png Mining & Energy https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/ https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification beehiiv en-us support@beehiiv.com (Beehiiv Support) The M&E DISPATCH // 165 Friday Edition - Ceasefire, Copper Standoffs, and the Biggest Gold IPO in a Decade https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-165 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-165 Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2026-04-10T16:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Merlion M at Johor, Malaysia

Photo by Fredrick F. on Unsplash

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

The Friday Dispatch

Mining & Energy Dispatch | Vol. 4 | April 10th, 2026

The Iran ceasefire lasted about 18 hours before both sides started accusing each other of violations. Oil swung 20 points in three days. Gold is holding above $4,700. Barrick just confirmed it's going ahead with the biggest mining IPO in a decade. China sent a careful message on rare earths — this morning. And BC's new fixed permit timelines are officially live.

A lot happened. Let's go.

🛠️ Site Update

The Expo directory is growing — three new profiles went live this week, 6 on deck. If you're looking for suppliers to the Canadian mining and energy sectors, it's worth a scroll:

Albarrie — Expo

Connect with the latest news, companies, jobs, and opportunities in the mining and energy industry. Your source for industry insights and connections.

Canadian Mining & Energy

Messer Canada — Expo

Connect with the latest news, companies, jobs, and opportunities in the mining and energy industry. Your source for industry insights and connections.

Canadian Mining & Energy

Coal Association of Canada — Expo

Connect with the latest news, companies, jobs, and opportunities in the mining and energy industry. Your source for industry insights and connections.

Canadian Mining & Energy

More Expo Profiles to come next week! If you want one for your company, hit reply and I’ll get you rolling.

🟡 Precious Metals

Gold pulled back on Iran ceasefire euphoria — briefly dipping below $4,700 — before climbing back to $4,743 as doubts about the truce's durability set in. The structural case hasn't moved.

⚡ Energy & Oil Markets

Wednesday was oil's worst day since April 2020. Thursday reversed most of it. The ceasefire is, in the loosest possible sense, still technically in effect.

🔋 Critical Minerals & Battery Metals

BC's new fixed permit timelines went live April 1st. Ottawa is weighing a $150M smelter rescue. And China sent a carefully worded "we're still in control" signal on rare earths — today.

☢️ Nuclear & Uranium

Wheeler River and Rook I got their federal licenses last week — two new Saskatchewan uranium mines licensed for the first time since Cigar Lake in 2014. The post-approval drumbeat has started.

💥 Conflict Watch

Two weeks of ceasefire, officially. One week of ceasefire, practically. Nobody is confident this holds past next Friday.

🌍 Geopolitics & Trade

China sent a careful message on rare earths today. Ottawa's trade posture is still forming. The Islamabad talks are the week's biggest unknown.

🤖 Technology, ESG & Indigenous

Permit reform is live in BC. Ontario's 1P1P framework is newly operational. And Saskatchewan just moved the needle on mineral rights and treaty implementation.

📌 Introducing: Call Your Shots

Everyone wants to say “I called that!” when it comes to the moves in our industries. Now you can call your shots and get credit for them.

Shots close at Market open on Monday and results are graded on Friday after close.

Bragging rights awarded at that time. Give it a try, no password needed, just use your email to get sent a magic login link.

https://www.miningandenergy.ca/shots

// NOTES FROM THE NORTH

This is the first weekend I’ve had in a while where I know exactly what my plans are. Saturday, we’re taking the kids to downtown TO for a college expo, then on Sunday we’re going to a pizza place that has amazing reviews.

Then the Latvian and I are going to finish the Bourne Series.

And that’s it. Need a few easy weekends before the peak summer whirlwind of activity begins.

-Lee

Btw, I

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 164 I didn't want to write this today. https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-164 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-164 Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2026-04-07T16:00:00Z

The Dispatch

I didn't want to write this today.

I thought about just skipping this edition and taking the morning off. I didn't want to be part of a news cycle where a head of state can say "a whole civilization will die tonight" and it just… scrolls past. Another notification. Another headline to swipe away between coffee and a meeting.

I couldn't do it. Have you seen the news? The plans for today? The actions already taken this morning?

I know what some of you are already typing. "Yeah, but what about their crimes against humanity — what about [X], [Y], [Z]."

And to that I say: I'm sick of it. Genuinely sick of it.

Whataboutism isn't an argument. It's a crutch we reach for when we've run out of the courage to sit with something uncomfortable, which is this: threatening to annihilate a civilization of human beings is wrong.

Full stop. No asterisk. No "but first, consider the context."

Terrible things done by a government do not write a blank cheque for the obliteration of the people living under it.

This isn't a political post. I'm not here to hand out jerseys or tell you who the good guys are. I genuinely don't think that's the useful conversation right now.

This is just me, a person who writes about rocks pulled out of the ground for a living, stopping for a second to say the people over there are the same as you and me. Born onto a rock hurtling through space, trying to figure it out. They have bad days. They stress about work and bills. They worry about their kids.

And right now some of them are forming human chains around power plants because they don't know what else to do.

Read that last line again, it’s accurate.

Moral and just nations don't strike civilian infrastructure. They don't target power plants, water treatment facilities, and bridges, because that kills innocent people who had no vote, no voice, and no say in any of this.

We can disagree about a lot of things. But "should we threaten the mass annihilation of millions of people" really shouldn't be one of them.

Open the Strait of Hormuz or we'll murder your civilians.

That's the sentence. Written plainly, that's what's being said today.

It's not always good guys versus bad guys. Both sides can be wrong. Both sides can be bad. And the willingness to say that out loud, without flinching, without reaching for the whataboutism crutch, is the bare minimum we owe each other right now.

-Lee

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 163 Friday Edition - Easter Eggs, Long Weekends, Un-favorable Winds of change. Perfect. https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-162-b336 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-162-b336 Fri, 03 Apr 2026 16:03:12 +0000 2026-04-03T16:03:12Z

THE DISPATCH

Photo by K8 on Unsplash

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

The Friday Dispatch

Mining & Energy Dispatch | Vol. 3 | April 3, 2026

The Iran conflict enters its sixth week with no ceasefire in sight — Trump says the Strait of Hormuz won't reopen on its own, gold is pulling back sharply from its all-time high, and two brand-new Saskatchewan uranium mines just got their federal green light. Meanwhile, Agnico Eagle made a quiet but strategic bet on a Yukon copper-gold junior, and the Ring of Fire roads are now five years ahead of schedule.

A lot to get through. Let's go.

🛠️ Site Update

Before we get into the week — a quick note on what's new at miningandenergy.ca.

I’ve been crushing updates these past two weeks. The main site just got a significant upgrade — cleaner layout, deeper content, and a natural language search that, while still fresh, is already returning results that feel a lot more like a search engine built for this sector. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

We also have three live Expo Profiles — the start of what will become the go-to directory for companies supplying the Canadian mining and energy sectors. Worth a bookmark if you're looking for suppliers or looking to be found:

  • City of Barrie — Economic Development — Advanced manufacturing hub 100 km from Toronto, with CNC machining, industrial fabrication, and a skilled trades pipeline connected directly to Northern Ontario mine sites via the Highway 400 corridor.

  • Brownclaw Asset Management — Reliability Consulting — Boutique reliability and maintenance consulting for mining and heavy industry: FMECA, RCM, condition monitoring, and asset strategy built by mining professionals, based in British Columbia.

  • Messer Canada — Industrial Gases — Part of the world's largest privately held industrial gas company, with 75+ years in Canada and 60+ locations coast to coast supplying oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, CO₂, and specialty gases for mining, metals, oil & gas, and manufacturing.

    More Expo Profiles to come next week! 

🟡 Precious Metals

Gold is correcting hard — down more than $1,000 from its late-January peak — but the structural bull case hasn't changed, and the junior end of the TSX is still on fire with fresh M&A and re-ratings.

⚡ Energy & Oil Markets

Oil briefly dipped toward $100 on ceasefire talk, then surged back as Iran kept striking Gulf targets — meanwhile, Trans Mountain data shows Canada already earning a $16.7-billion premium from Pacific export capacity, making the case for another pipeline impossible to ignore.

🔋 Critical Minerals & Battery Metals

Saskatchewan's uranium construction approvals, PMET's lithium ESIA filing, and Skeena's Eskay Creek construction milestone are all signs that Canada's mine development pipeline is finally moving at the pace the moment demands.

☢️ Nuclear & Uranium

Two new Saskatchewan uranium mines received federal approval this week in what may be the most significant moment for Canadian uranium production since Cigar Lake — and the global race for supply is accelerating fast.

💥 Conflict Watch

Six weeks in, Trump says the U.S. is "close to victory" but rules out ceasefire — Iran keeps striking Gulf targets, oil holds above $100, and the Strait remains partially closed to Western-affiliated shipping.

🌍 Geopolitics & Trade

Canada's resource sector is the most strategically valuable it has been in a generation — the Trans Mountain data is making the pipeline argument for politicians, and the CUSMA review is forcing Ottawa to finally decide what it wants in exchange.

🤖 Technology, ESG & Indigenous

The Eskay Creek consent model is becoming a national template, PMET's lithium ESIA marks a coming-of-age moment for Canada's battery metals pipeline, and U.S. tribal objections to BC mines are adding a cross-border dimension to the reconciliation conversation.

The Friday Dispatch is published weekly by Mining & Energy Dispatch. Forward freely. Subscribe at miningandenergy.ca.

// NOTES FROM THE NORTH

Really pleased with how the site updates are coming along, please do give it a play and make sure you search for your company. If you don’t see results from your company in there, hit reply and let me know.

Enjoy the (long!) weekend all,

-Lee

If your kid finds chocolate still hidden from last year that means you’ve done your job well, twice.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 162 Sorry, Mr. Hoekstra. We Disagree. https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-162 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-162 Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2026-03-31T16:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Photo by John Simmons on Unsplash

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

The M&E Dispatch

"You Haven't Really Been Harmed"

A refresher. For the Ambassador. Slowly.

Mr. Hoekstra, we appreciate you taking the time. We really do. But with the greatest of respect, and we mean that in the most Canadian way possible, so please understand what we're actually saying, you might want to acquaint yourself with the file before your next interview.

We read about your appearance on Rebel News. Things like "you guys haven't really been harmed by the tariffs," and Canada having "the second-best deal in the world," and, our personal favourite, "Canada's not our problem with autos." We also caught the bit where Chinese EVs crossing from Canada into the US is something that "ain't gonna happen."

We took notes.

Because one of two things is happening here. Either the briefings you're receiving about the Canadian economy are incomplete, in which case we'd gently suggest finding better ones. Or you're fully aware of the situation on the ground and have chosen to describe it as "not really harmed" anyway, in which case we'd suggest that Canadians, who have been reading their own mail, watching their own plants close, and sending newsletters into inboxes full of bounced Algoma Steel addresses, are perhaps not the audience for that particular narrative.

We're a polite people. We'll hold the door. We'll apologize when you bump into us. But we do know how to read a room. And we know what gaslighting looks like, even when it's delivered with a smile and a talking point about second-best deals.

So. Let's have a look at the room, shall we?

🎯 The Intended Harm

The tariff strategy was never subtle about its goals. Hit Canada in the sectors where it would hurt most, steel, aluminum, lumber, autos, and leverage that pain into concessions. The logic, from Washington's perspective, was straightforward enough.

And to be fair, it landed. It landed on:

  • Algoma Steel, where corporate email addresses have gone dark one by one, and LinkedIn feeds have turned into a sea of green "Open to Work" banners over the faces of tradespeople and engineers in Sault Ste. Marie.

  • GM facilities in Canada, now closing. The auto sector, the very sector these tariffs were supposedly designed to repatriate, is consolidating south of the border. Exactly as critics warned.

  • Canadian exports broadly, which were 4% lower by Q3 2025 than before US tariffs were imposed, with declines hitting even sectors not directly targeted. Bank of Canada

The Ambassador himself noted that Canadian-built cars run "50%, 75% US content." So the manufacturing that got disrupted was, in large part, American manufacturing too. The jobs that left Oshawa didn't move to Michigan. They just left.

💥 The Actual Effect

Here's where it gets interesting, and not in the way Washington planned.

Trade policy is a blunt instrument. You swing it at one thing and it hits several others. The tariff pressure on Canadian goods didn't just affect Canadian producers. It rippled into supply chains, investor confidence, and cross-border business relationships that took decades to build.

Canadian businesses have grown reluctant to rely on US inputs, and imports from the United States have fallen noticeably since 2025, while imports from other countries have risen. Bank of Canada That's not a temporary pivot. That's a structural shift in purchasing behaviour. Once a supply chain is rewired, it rarely goes back.

The pressure also triggered something Washington clearly didn't anticipate: a wave of non-Canadian companies deciding that operating inside the US tariff wall was less attractive than operating just above it.

  • Pandora, the world's largest jewellery brand, opened a new online distribution centre in Mississauga, Ontario, explicitly to reduce its exposure to US tariffs. Pandora Group Baltimore used to handle all of North America. Not anymore.

  • The Siebel Institute of Technology, America's oldest brewing school, transplanted its Chicago campus to Montreal, VisaHQ citing US visa cutbacks and rising compliance costs.

  • Phillips Distilling, maker of Sour Puss liqueur, shifted production from Minnesota to Montreal after Canadian liquor boards curtailed shelf space for US imports. VisaHQ

  • Launchpad Co-Pack in Collingwood, Ontario, found itself on the winning side of the trade war as foreign companies flooded in looking for ways to avoid doing business in the US. Marketplace

The wall has two sides. Some companies have decided they'd rather be on ours.

🚗 About Those Chinese EVs

Yes, Mr. Ambassador, Chinese electric vehicles won't be crossing into the United States from Canada. Understood.

But let's be clear about what actually happened here. Canada didn't lower its Chinese EV tariff out of naivety. It did so as part of a deal that opened Chinese markets to Canadian canola and lobster, agricultural exports critical to rural economies already battered by US trade policy. That's not opening floodgates. That's a trade. A rational one. The kind countries make when their primary trading partner has become unpredictable.

The pivot to Asia isn't a betrayal of the relationship. It's the direct and entirely predictable consequence of how that relationship has been managed.

🛢️ Meanwhile, About Those Commodities

Here's the part of the story that doesn't get nearly enough attention, and the part that, frankly, changes the complexion of everything above.

  • Oil is above $100 a barrel. Not approaching it. There.

  • The Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly 20% of global oil supply moves, has become, functionally, a toll route. Tanker operators are pricing in disruption. Insurers are adjusting. The risk premium is real, it is large, and it is not going away soon.

  • Gold is surging. Investors fleeing instability always find their way to it, and they are finding their way to it now.

  • Silver is climbing, driven by both safe-haven demand and its critical role in solar panels and electronics manufacturing.

  • Critical minerals, lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths, are tightening globally as supply chains fracture and every major economy simultaneously decides it needs to secure its own sources.

Now. Who benefits from $100+ oil, surging gold, climbing silver, and a critical minerals scramble?

Canada.

Not abstractly. Specifically. The oil sands. The hard rock mines of Northern Ontario and Quebec. The mineral belts of British Columbia and the territories. The resource infrastructure this newsletter has covered for nearly thirty years. These are not hypothetical future assets. They are producing assets, right now, in a price environment that is moving in their favour while global instability does the marketing for them.

For the average American consumer, this is unambiguously bad news, higher fuel prices, higher costs for manufactured goods, a Federal Reserve with no good options. But for Canadian resource companies that have spent years navigating low commodity prices, regulatory headwinds, and now a trade war? This is what a horizon looks like.

🧭 A New Course

Canada is not waiting for Washington to remember it exists.

The government is spending C$32 billion on Arctic infrastructure, not just as a sovereignty statement, but as a long-term resource and security play. It is deepening ties with Norway and the Nordic nations. The number of Canadian exporters planning to enter new markets has surged, with 65% planning market expansion in the next two years, and the number of companies already exporting to multiple markets has more than tripled over the past decade. Global News

The Carney government's deal with Beijing, EVs in, canola and lobster out, is a data point in a larger pattern. Canada is methodically building the kind of trade redundancy that should have existed long before now. New partners. New routes. New terms negotiated from a position of necessity, yes, but also from a position of genuine resource wealth that the rest of the world is increasingly eager to access.

That's not a country that hasn't been harmed. That's a country that took the hit, absorbed it, and started building something different.

With respect, Mr. Ambassador, that's worth knowing.

📋 What We're Watching

  • Hormuz shipping premiums and their effect on Canadian heavy crude differentials

  • Gold, silver, and critical mineral price trajectories and which Canadian producers are best positioned

  • GM's Canadian closure timeline and downstream supplier impact

  • Arctic infrastructure spend, what C$32 billion actually builds, and on what timeline

  • The Carney-Beijing EV and agricultural deal and whether it survives Washington's next policy swing

  • Corporate relocation activity, which companies are eyeing Canadian operations next, and where they're landing

  • Canadian export diversification, which new markets are absorbing the volume the US is no longer taking

// NOTES FROM THE NORTH

The US caught us with blindside check behind the play. We didn’t see it coming, we didn’t have the puck, heck, we might have even been looking to the bench for a line change… Then… BLAM!

It hurt.
It still hurts.

We had a walk down the tunnel, a chat with the trainer and we’re back on the bench. Ready to play.

I’m good coach. Next shift, go!

Our two national sports are as full contact as they come.
Hockey in the Winter, Lacrosse in the summer.

Heck, we designed a game where you can commit violent crimes and it has a jail built into the playing surface.

We’re raised to take hits and stay in the game. We’ve categorized them into two kinds, clean hits and dirty hits. You forget the clean hits, well played.

The dirty hits, they get remembered by the whole team and always by the fans.

We’re almost loved globally, and where we’re not loved, we’re at least respected.

Thanks to to the global mess our neighbour has created, we’ve got a lineup of new business.

Canada just set its Linkedin Profile picture to “OPEN FOR TRADE”.

-Lee

“And I suggest you let that one marinate.” - Letterkenny

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 161 Friday Edition - TACO Tuesday. Is the Hormuz Toll a boon for Canada? Diamonds are not forever? https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-161 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-161 Fri, 27 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2026-03-27T16:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Merlion M at Johor, Malaysia

Photo by Fredrick F. on Unsplash

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

The Friday Dispatch

TACO Tuesday. Is the Hormuz Toll a boon for Canada? Diamonds are not forever?

What a week. Iran denied U.S. talks, oil pushed past $108, TC Energy's CEO told Reuters the Hormuz crisis makes LNG Canada Phase 2 more likely — and Carney was in Houston at CERAWeek signing energy deals with nine countries. Meanwhile, Diavik pulled its last diamond out of the ground in the NWT, closing a 23-year chapter in Canadian mining history.

A lot moved this week. Let's get into it.

🟡 Precious Metals

Gold is pulling back from its $5,589 all-time high but experts say the structural bull case hasn't changed — silver had a wild ride and is finding its floor, while the TSX junior exploration board is on fire.

⚡ Energy & Oil Markets

Canada's energy sector is having its biggest week in years — LNG Canada Phase 2 is moving fast, Carney took the "energy superpower" message to CERAWeek, and Ottawa just signed its first federal-provincial environmental review streamlining deal.

🔋 Critical Minerals & Battery Metals

Canada's graphite strategy got a lot more real this week with a binding government supply deal — and the feds are betting big on a Trump-connected rare earth project in northern Quebec.

☢️ Nuclear & Uranium

The race for uranium is officially global — and Canada's Athabasca Basin is at the centre of it, with a structural fuel supply bottleneck adding urgency to every new exploration announcement.

💥 Conflict Watch

Trump extended his Iran deadline to April 6th — Brent is above $108 today, Iran is still striking across the Middle East, and Macquarie is now projecting $200/barrel if this drags into June.

🌍 Geopolitics & Trade

Canada is rewriting its foreign energy and minerals relationships in real time — and the question of whether to trust Washington is now openly debated in Ottawa.

🤖 Technology & ESG

The Carney government moved on permitting reform this week — and a landmark reclamation story out of the NWT offers a rare good-news model for what responsible mine closure can look like.

The Friday Dispatch is published weekly by Mining & Energy Dispatch. Forward freely. Subscribe at miningandenergy.ca.

// NOTES FROM THE NORTH

Heading into Toronto tomorrow in pursuit of the city’s best Apple Fritter and a hefty dose of nostalgia. 

Enjoy the weekend all,

-Lee

Look up, waaaaay up and I’ll call Rusty.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 160 🧠 THE CANADIAN RESOURCE SECTOR QUIZ — MARCH 2026 EDITION https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-160 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-160 Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2026-03-24T16:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Price Is Right Television GIF by Justin

Let’s play a game!

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

The Friday Dispatch

🧠 THE CANADIAN RESOURCE SECTOR QUIZ — MARCH 2026 EDITION

"Give yourself 10 points if you answered ___"

How well do you actually know what's happening in the sector you work in? Let's find out.

We talk about critical minerals, pipelines, and energy policy all day long — but do you actually know the numbers? Drop your score in the replies. No judgment. (Okay, some judgment.)

QUESTION 1 — The LNG Question Everyone Should Know

LNG Canada officially shipped its first-ever cargo from Kitimat, B.C. in what month?

  • A) March 2025

  • B) June 2025

  • C) September 2025

  • D) December 2024

QUESTION 2 — The Big Pipeline Number

How many barrels per day does the Trans Mountain pipeline system currently move from Alberta to the West Coast?

  • A) 590,000 barrels/day

  • B) 750,000 barrels/day

  • C) 890,000 barrels/day

  • D) 1.1 million barrels/day

QUESTION 3 — The Money Move

At PDAC 2026, the federal government announced a brand new "First and Last Mile Fund" for mining infrastructure. How much is it worth?

  • A) $500 million

  • B) $1.5 billion

  • C) $3.2 billion

  • D) $750 million

QUESTION 4 — The Tariff That Stings

When the U.S. first imposed tariffs on Canada in early 2025, what specific tariff rate was applied to Canadian energy exports (oil, gas, coal)?

  • A) 25%

  • B) 5%

  • C) 10%

  • D) 15%

QUESTION 5 — Uranium is Having a Moment

Spot uranium surged dramatically in January 2026. What price did it briefly hit — its highest point since early 2024?

  • A) $68/lb

  • B) $84/lb

  • C) $101.26/lb

  • D) $122/lb

QUESTION 6 — Show Me the Sovereign Fund

Canada's upcoming Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund — a first-of-its-kind program launching this spring — is valued at how much?

  • A) $500 million

  • B) $1 billion

  • C) $2 billion

  • D) $5 billion

QUESTION 7 — Critical 6

The federal government has specifically identified six priority critical minerals for targeted investment and policy support. Which of the following is NOT on that list?

  • A) Lithium

  • B) Cobalt

  • C) Manganese

  • D) Copper

QUESTION 8 — The National Energy Corridor

On March 4, 2026, a major national energy corridor partnership was announced. How many provinces and territories are part of it?

  • A) 4

  • B) 7

  • C) 9

  • D) 12

QUESTION 9 — The Crown Jewel Pipeline

Trans Mountain became fully operational in what month and year?

  • A) January 2023

  • B) October 2023

  • C) May 2024

  • D) February 2025

QUESTION 10 — Minerals Unlocked

At the 2026 Critical Minerals Forum during PDAC, Canada secured how many new Critical Minerals Production Alliance partnerships?

  • A) 10

  • B) 20

  • C) 30

  • D) 45

✅ ANSWER KEY

Q1 — B: June 2025
LNG Canada's first cargo departed Kitimat on June 30, 2025 — and by November, they'd shipped 25 cargoes. Phase 1 capacity sits at 14 million tonnes per year. Canada is officially in the LNG export business.

Q2 — C: 890,000 barrels/day
Trans Mountain is the only pipeline delivering oil to Canada's West Coast. Expansion plans are already targeting an additional 90,000 bpd by Q1 2027. The taps are open — and Asia is thirsty.

Q3 — B: $1.5 billion
Minister Hodgson launched the $1.5B First and Last Mile Fund right at PDAC on March 2, 2026 — with $114.9M already committed to the first five projects. Shovels meet spreadsheets.

Q4 — C: 10%
While most Canadian goods were hit with the full 25% tariff, Canadian energy products (oil, gas, coal) got a "discounted" 10% rate. Lucky us. Try explaining that as a win at the dinner table.

Q5 — C: $101.26/lb
Uranium surged 24% in January 2026 alone — its highest point since the February 2024 peak of $107/lb. With a U.S. ban on Russian enriched uranium looming by 2028, the Athabasca Basin is looking more strategic by the day.

Q6 — C: $2 billion
Canada's Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund will make equity investments, loan guarantees, and supply agreements to fast-track mine development to Final Investment Decision. Spring 2026 launch. Watch this one closely.

Q7 — C: Manganese
Ottawa's six priority minerals are lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements. Manganese didn't make the cut — respectfully.

Q8 — C: 9
The National Energy Corridor Partnership includes B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Yukon, PEI, Nova Scotia, and the Northwest Territories. Ontario is conspicuously absent. Draw your own conclusions.

Q9 — C: May 2024
After years of delays, cost overruns, and protests, TMX finally began full operations in May 2024 — unlocking tidewater access and a whole new conversation about Indo-Pacific energy markets.

Q10 — C: 30
Canada secured 30 new partnerships and unlocked $12.1 billion in mining project capital at the 2026 Critical Minerals Production Alliance round. Not bad for a PDAC week's work.

🏆 HOW DID YOU DO?

90–100 points: A Certified Canadian Resource Sage. You probably attended PDAC this year, have opinions about toll structures, and name your pets after mineral deposits. Respect.

70–80 points: The Informed Professional. You're sharp, you're plugged in, and you probably skimmed the dispatch headlines at 7am while your coffee brewed. Solid.

50–60 points: The Optimistic Generalist. You know Canada has pipelines and uranium is a thing. That's a start.

30–40 points: The Accidental Subscriber. You may have signed up for a recipe newsletter and ended up here. Welcome. Stay a while. The tariffs are wild this year.

0–20 points: The Policy Maker. Apparently deep sector knowledge isn't required for the job. At least you're here now.

// NOTES FROM THE NORTH

If you’re working from somewhere gorgeous today, send me a picture and tell me about it. It snowed here yesterday, I’m pretty over this.

Excited to unveil the Expo on Friday! T-3 days!

-Lee

The Elevator didn't kill the stair industry. Just sayin’

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 159 How long till we see fist fights at Costco's Fuel Bar? We already throw hands over Pokemon drops and Rotisserie Chicken Line Skippers... https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-159 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-159 Fri, 20 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2026-03-20T16:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Photo by Lukas Kyzur on Unsplash

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

The Friday Dispatch

A new format for Fridays.

Friday mornings are often my busiest morning of the week, between last-minute stories and interviews, my work day is packed. Your day is likely the same, but we both need the same thing: a super quick look at how the week is closing out and what Monday will likely bring.

So starting today, Fridays get their own format. Seven categories, thirty-five links, one sentence per story. The deep dives and long-form analysis will still be waiting for you on Tuesdays — but Friday belongs to the dispatch.

🟡 Precious Metals

Gold is rewriting the record books and lighting a fuse under TSX mining stocks — senior producers are flush with cash and actively hunting for their next acquisition.

⚡ Energy & Oil Markets

Canada's LNG buildout and Alberta's oil patch are suddenly the most strategically important energy assets in the Western world — the Hormuz crisis is doing what years of lobbying could not.

🔋 Critical Minerals & Battery Metals

The federal government just dropped $12+ billion on Canada's mineral moment at PDAC — and copper is hitting prices not seen since the commodities supercycle of the early 2000s.

☢️ Nuclear & Uranium

Uranium is back above $100/lb, Canada's first SMR is under construction, and AI data centres are creating a brand new layer of price-inelastic nuclear demand.

🌍 Geopolitics & Trade

Canada's tariff fight with Washington, China's rare earth chokehold, and the fracturing of the U.S.-Canada trade relationship are forcing a fundamental rethink of who we sell to — and on what terms.

💥 Conflict Watch

The Iran-Hormuz crisis is the biggest energy shock since 2022 — oil is above $100/barrel, shipping insurance has been cancelled for the Strait, and Canada's energy sector is at the centre of the global response.

🤖 Technology & ESG

AI is reshaping how mines operate, a landmark BC court ruling is rewriting how they get permitted, and Indigenous equity ownership is no longer optional — it's becoming a funding prerequisite.

The Friday Dispatch is published weekly by Mining & Energy Dispatch. Forward freely. Subscribe at miningandenergy.ca.

// NOTES FROM THE NORTH

Rough start to playoffs for the boys, down 2-0. They’ll be playing their last game today and heading back home. Great season none the less and not the end of the year at all, just league play.

Also, it’s snowing here this morning, I don’t want to talk about it and I sure would appreciate that if you’re somewhere warm, send me a photo so I can live vicariously through you.

Let me know what you think of the new Friday Dispatch Format.

Enjoy the weekend all,

-Lee

The Elevator didn't kill the stair industry. Just sayin’

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 158 Saskatchewan just got a massive AI investment and that's good for all Canadians https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-158 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-158 Tue, 17 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2026-03-17T16:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

Canada Just Put a Flag in the AI Ground

Sometimes, nation‑building doesn’t look like a railway or a pipeline.

Sometimes, it looks like a field outside Regina getting wired up to become one of the most powerful AI engines on the planet.

Bell and the Government of Saskatchewan just announced a 300‑megawatt AI data centre campus in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, south of Regina — a project big enough to bend Canada’s digital gravity back toward home. It’s a $1.7‑billion bet that the next phase of AI shouldn’t just be rented from California or Taiwan – it should be built, owned, and operated right here in Canada.

Build Canadian, Invest Canadian

Let’s start with the basics.

  • Bell is putting $1.7 billion into this campus, its largest investment ever in Saskatchewan.

  • At full build‑out, the site will support 300 MW of high‑performance AI compute, making it the largest purpose‑built AI data centre in the country.

  • Over time, the project is expected to generate up to $12 billion in economic value for the province through jobs, tax revenue, and spin‑off activity.

This is not a hyperscaler flying a foreign flag in Canadian soil.
This is a Canadian incumbent turning back into what it was at its best: a national infrastructure builder, laying down a digital backbone instead of copper wire.

If “sovereign AI” is going to be more than a buzzword, somebody has to pour real concrete and run real cable on Canadian dirt. That’s what this campus does. It gives Canadian governments, researchers, and enterprises a place to run serious AI workloads while keeping their data inside Canadian borders and under Canadian rules.

Saskatchewan at the Epicentre

Why Regina? Because this is what industrial strategy actually looks like.

The province wants to be at the epicentre of AI industrialization, not just another branch‑plant market consuming models built somewhere else. In partnership with SaskTel and SaskPower, the campus will plug directly into provincial infrastructure and Bell’s national fibre, giving Saskatchewan a front‑row seat in the AI economy instead of the cheap seats.​

Some numbers:

  • At least 800 construction jobs for trades and engineering during the build‑out.

  • A minimum of 80 full‑time roles once the facility is fully operational, plus an estimated 750 additional community jobs over time.

  • Long‑term collaboration with Saskatchewan Polytechnic and the University of Regina on applied research, talent development, and even ideas like using waste heat for greenhouses and nearby campuses.

The story here isn’t just “big shiny data centre.” It’s that an empty stretch of farmland on the edge of Regina is on track to become critical infrastructure for Canadian AI research, public‑sector modernization, and new industrial applications we haven’t named yet.

Not Just Capacity, Character

The partners matter.

Bell has already signed on CoreWeave and Cerebras as anchor tenants — two heavyweight AI infrastructure players that bring serious GPU and wafer‑scale compute into the Canadian stack. Combine that with provincial partners and you get something different from the usual cloud‑reseller story: a domestic fabric where global horsepower is stitched into Canadian governance, Canadian connectivity, and Canadian labour.

There’s also an explicit role for Indigenous economic participation. Bell has an agreement with George Gordon First Nation focused on Indigenous procurement and workforce development, with an eye to long‑term community benefits, not just a photo op at the groundbreaking. That’s the kind of detail that turns “AI cluster” from slogan into a real local development story.

On the sustainability side, the design calls for water‑smart, closed‑loop cooling and a plan to minimize noise, light, and visual impact — plus the potential to reuse waste heat in nearby developments. In other words, this isn’t “spray cold river water on hot servers and hope nobody notices” infrastructure. It’s engineered to live next to real communities.

The Hopeful Take

It’s easy to be cynical about AI headlines, especially when most of the value created so far has flowed into a handful of American and Asian balance sheets. But this announcement nudges the narrative in a different direction.

If Canada wants to matter in the next economic cycle, it needs three things:

  • Places to run world‑class models at scale without exporting all the value.

  • Pathways for Canadian students, researchers, and trades to work on frontier‑grade infrastructure without leaving the country.

  • Partners willing to build long‑lived assets instead of chasing the next app.

This Saskatchewan campus ticks all three.

We’re still early. Construction ramps this year, with initial capacity expected online in 2027 and additional data halls following in stages. There will be debates about power, land use, and who gets access to the compute. Those are healthy arguments for a country that actually intends to play.

But step back for a second: a Canadian company, in partnership with a Canadian province and Indigenous communities, is about to build one of the most powerful AI engines in the world — and keep it on our grid, under our laws, creating our jobs. That’s what “Build Canadian, Invest Canadian” looks like in the AI age.

Today it’s a field outside Regina.
Tomorrow it’s part of the backbone of how Canada thinks, builds, and competes.

// THE DIRT

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

I don’t know what season it is anymore, it was +18c the other day, this morning we have 6” of fresh snow and -8c.

The boys are off to Montreal for playoffs today, loading the bus as this is sent and hitting the road. This leaves me with a peaceful house to work on these Business Expos from this week.

Also leaves me with no one to shovel the snow for me.

Tradeoffs.

-Lee

Simple things lead to simple results. Complicated things do too.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 157 Our Arctic is sitting on trillions of dollars of untouched resources that now have a funded pathway to market. Let's go!! https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-157 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-157 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2026-03-13T16:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

It’s cold and full of money

Sounds exactly like the kinda place you’d find a bunch of Canadians…

If you've been a reader for a while, you'll know that I'm a huge fan of the idea of some Nation Building / Make Work Projects for the Arctic. Well, I just got my wish, and in a way, so did you.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Mark Carney stood in Yellowknife and announced what might be the single most important infrastructure commitment for Canada's mining and energy sector in a generation: more than $40 billion in Arctic defence, infrastructure, and economic development. We're talking highways, deepwater ports, hydro expansion, and an all-weather road through one of the most mineral-rich geological formations on Earth.

This isn't a "we'll study it" announcement. Construction on the Mackenzie Valley Highway starts this summer. The Arctic Infrastructure Fund is already accepting proposals. And four nation-building mega-projects have been referred to the Major Projects Office with a target of shovels-in-ground by the late 2020s.

Here is how it all breaks down.

The Four Projects That Change Everything

Mackenzie Valley Highway, Yellowknife to the Beaufort Sea

The dream highway. An ~800 km all-season road from Yellowknife to Inuvik, cutting travel distance by 1,200 km and travel time from 38 hours to 23. Phase 1, Wrigley to Norman Wells, breaks ground this summer with bridge relocation and road resurfacing already underway. The full build is estimated at $3.65 billion.

Why this matters for mining and energy: it opens road access to the Dehcho, Sahtu, and Beaufort Delta regions for the first time. That means year-round logistics for mineral exploration, oil and gas servicing, and community supply chains. The 30-year GDP impact is projected at $58.9 billion, with transportation costs dropping 25-40% for northern communities.​

Grays Bay Road and Port, Canada's First Connected Arctic Port

This one's been on our radar for years. A ~230 km all-season gravel road from the Nunavut border to a new deepwater port and airfield at Grays Bay on the Arctic Ocean. This would be the only deepwater harbour between Nome, Alaska and Iqaluit connected to the road system. The proponent, West Kitikmeot Resources Corp., backed by the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, filed its 5,000-page Impact Statement with the Nunavut Impact Review Board on March 1. The Canada Infrastructure Bank has already signed an MOU for accelerator funding. Estimated cost: $1.2 billion.

Think about what this unlocks. A mineral export terminal on the Arctic Ocean, accessible year-round by road. For every exploration company sitting on deposits in the Kitikmeot region, and there are many, this is the missing piece.

Arctic Economic and Security Corridor, A Road Through the Slave Geological Province

Here's the one that should make every geologist's heart skip a beat. A ~400 km all-season road through the Slave Geological Province, one of the most mineral-rich formations on the planet, connecting to the Grays Bay Road at the Nunavut border. The proponents are the Tłı̨chǫ Government, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and the Government of the NWT.​

The Slave Geological Province sits between Great Slave Lake and Coronation Gulf. It contains some of the oldest known igneous and metamorphic rocks on Earth and has a long history of mining, diamonds, gold, base metals, rare earths. The NWT government released a fresh Mineral Potential Study at PDAC 2026 that evaluated 1,721 mineral showings containing 19 different critical minerals, including 116 showings not captured in previous assessments. The study confirmed broad potential for lithium, cobalt, copper, zinc, gold, and diamonds.

Right now, you can't get there. With this road, you can, and you can truck what you find to a deepwater Arctic port at Grays Bay. Combined, the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor + Grays Bay Road + Port creates an overland mineral highway from Yellowknife to the Arctic Ocean.

Taltson Hydro Expansion, The Power Behind All of It

You can't run mines without power. The Taltson expansion is a 60 MW project that doubles the NWT's hydro capacity and connects North and South Slave Lake electrical grids for the first time via a 320 km transmission line, including a submarine cable under Great Slave Lake. It will serve 11 communities and over 70% of the NWT's population with clean energy.

The NWT Métis Nation has called it "probably the single largest proposed project that Indigenous groups will ultimately be in charge of". This is the backbone infrastructure that makes a mining corridor viable, and makes the economics of northern mineral development pencil out.​

The Funding Machine Behind It

Carney didn't just announce projects. He announced the money to build them:

  • $1 billion Arctic Infrastructure Fund, call for proposals opened March 4, accepting applications from northern communities, territorial/Indigenous governments, and industry partners. Deadline: June 5, 2026.

  • $5 billion Trade and Transportation Corridors Fund, a new call for proposals launched March 3 specifically targeting dual-use (civilian + defence) northern transport infrastructure.​

  • $32 billion for NORAD Northern Basing Infrastructure including forward operating locations in Yellowknife, Inuvik, Iqaluit, and Goose Bay.

  • $6.5 billion for a new Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar system, in partnership with Australia.​

  • $2.67 billion for new Northern Operational Support Hubs in Whitehorse, Resolute Bay, Rankin Inlet, and Cambridge Bay.​

And that's just the infrastructure side. At PDAC two weeks ago, Energy Minister Tim Hodgson announced some serious commitments on the critical minerals front:

  • $18.5 billion now mobilized under the Critical Minerals Production Alliance with 12 allied nations, $12.1 billion in the second round alone.

  • $1.5 billion First and Last Mile Fund to connect mines to markets.​

  • An upcoming $2 billion Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund.​

  • $165.2 million in federal investments for 22 Canadian mining projects.​

  • A permitting target of two years from referral to conditions document at the Major Projects Office, which Hodgson says will be the fastest in the G20.​

Hodgson's quote from PDAC is worth repeating: "We are advancing at a pace not witnessed since World War Two. This is our opportunity to excel."​

The Permitting Revolution

This is the part that often kills projects in Canada, the regulatory timeline. But the federal and provincial governments are moving faster than we've ever seen:

  • The Major Projects Office now has 13 referred projects, 5 of which are mining. The goal: conditions document within two years of referral. "One project, one review".

  • British Columbia is introducing fixed permitting timelines for mineral exploration starting April 1, 2026, 40 to 140 days depending on complexity, with an escalation to the chief permitting officer if deadlines are missed.​

  • Ontario is fast-tracking major nickel projects under its new "One Project, One Process" framework.​

  • Federal exploration permits issued in 2025 were up 35% over 2024.​

As Torys LLP noted in their 2026 mining outlook: "Several project acceleration initiatives put forward by federal and provincial governments alike will be put to the test; in many cases, it will be the first time a new regulatory framework is implemented".​

The Bigger Picture

Let's zoom out for a second.

Canada produces 10 of the 12 minerals classified as defence-critical by NATO. The Defence Industrial Strategy released February 17 explicitly identified mining and processing of critical minerals as offering "substantial economic growth potential while directly strengthening national security". The federal government is standing up a mineral stockpiling regime with $8.27 million in initial funding.

The US-Canada trade relationship has been battered by 18 months of escalating tariffs. Carney's own words: "It is clear that the United States is no longer a reliable partner". The policy response is self-reliance, building Canadian infrastructure, developing Canadian resources, and selling them to allied nations through the Critical Minerals Production Alliance.​

Meanwhile, oil above $100/bbl makes every barrel of Canadian crude wildly profitable. Gold is at all-time highs, extending mine lives and filling exploration budgets across the North. Copper demand is surging on defence and electrification spending. And the Arctic, our Arctic, is sitting on trillions of dollars of untouched resources that now have a funded pathway to market.

I've been beating this drum for a long time. Build things. Create jobs. Open the North. Use what we have.

Yesterday, the government finally said: "Yeah, let's do it."

This is Canada's moment. Let's not waste it.

// THE DIRT

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

Back in the rink today for the second game of a 2 game exhibition set. Playoffs are next week in Montreal, trying to stack some wins heading into that.

Not much for notes today, excited for the weekend. Hopefully it’s nice out where you are and you get to enjoy some early spring sun.

-Lee

Simple things lead to simple results. Complicated things do too.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 156 Triple Digit Oil? 9 Digit Federal Investment in Critical Minerals? Is this the summer that Canadian Companies stack some cash? Maybe, if they're clever. https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-156 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-156 Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2026-03-10T16:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

The Rocks Don't Care

And neither does the market…

Last week, the federal government stood on a stage in Toronto and committed $3.6 billion to Canada's critical minerals future. A $2 billion Sovereign Fund. A $1.5 billion infrastructure fund. Tax credits. Stockpiling programs. The works.

32,155 people showed up to PDAC, the most in the convention's 94-year history. Over 1,300 companies set up booths. The energy in the room was undeniable. The Prime Minister is flying around the world selling Canada as the West's answer to China's mineral dominance. The money is real. The intent is real.

And the rocks don't care.

For all their usefulness, for all the lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths, and copper buried under Canadian soil, the rocks care not about our timelines. They don't care about geopolitics. They don't care that China could snap export controls back into place tomorrow. They don't care that the average mine takes 16 years to go from discovery to production. They don't care about your stock price.

1,300 Booths. One Problem.

Here's what I noticed walking the floor at PDAC last week, after talking to hundreds of companies:

They know their stuff. The geology is sound. The assays are promising. The resource estimates are real. These are smart, technical people doing serious work.

But most of them cannot sell.

There are over 1,000 mining companies listed on the TSX and TSXV alone. About 40% of the world's public mining companies trade on Canadian exchanges. And they're all chasing the same pool of capital, a pool that just got a lot of new money splashing around in it, sure, but a pool that has options.

Only about 1% of early-stage exploration targets ever become producing mines. The average time from discovery to production is now nearly 18 years. In Canada specifically, it's even longer, regulatory timelines add roughly two extra years compared to the global average.

So if you're one of those 1,300 companies at PDAC, congrats, the government just made billions available. Billions more in allied capital is flowing in through the Critical Minerals Production Alliance. But there are a thousand of you on the TSX alone, many of you years, sometimes a decade, from revenue.​

You are in the longest sales cycle in any industry on earth. And most of you are not selling.

"We Don't Have Any Competition"

I hear this line constantly. "We're the only lithium play in [insert province]." "We're the only rare earth deposit with [insert technical feature]." Said with a straight face, like it's a magic spell that summons investors.

It's not.

You're not competing with the other lithium play in your province. You're competing with every other use for that money. Am I putting $15,000 into your junior explorer, or am I buying my kid a dirt bike? Is your institutional investor allocating to your Series A, or are they loading up on Suncor while oil sits at $87+? Is that fund manager choosing between you and a GIC paying 4.5%?

The junior mining industry has a well-documented problem with capital allocation and marketing. Many CEOs come from technical backgrounds and lack capital markets experience. The pattern is painfully predictable: blast out press releases, scramble for investor attention during a financing, go quiet once it closes, repeat. Feast or famine. Savvy investors see right through it.

A website that hasn't been updated since your last drill program. Four posts a year on social media. A daily "like and comment" strategy on LinkedIn. This is not a marketing plan. This is a to-do list for someone who doesn't want to do marketing.

You Need Ginsu Knives People

You know what sold a billion dollars worth of cheap kitchen knives? Not the knives. The pitch. The energy. The person on camera who made you believe you absolutely could not live without a knife that cuts through a tin can and then slices a tomato.

That's what's missing from most mining company booths, websites, and investor decks. Not information, conviction. Not data, urgency.

To borrow from Boiler Room: "There is no such thing as a no-sale call. You either sell the client some stock, or he sells you a reason he can't. Either way, a sale is made. The only question is: who is going to close?"

Right now, too many mining companies are letting the investor close them. "We'll think about it." "Send me the deck." "Let's circle back after your next assay." That's not a conversation. That's a funeral.

The companies that win, the ones that actually get funded, that attract the strategic partners, that end up on the TSX Venture 50, are the ones that sell.
Their websites sell.
Their investor decks sell.
Their advertisements sell.
Their CEO doesn't just explain the geology; they make you feel like you'd be insane to miss this.​

Carney's Selling. Are You?

Mark Carney is on the global stage right now, pitching Canada as the critical minerals superpower the Western world needs. He's at the G7. He's launching production alliances. He's putting $18.5 billion in alliance capital behind Canadian projects. The man is selling.​

And you, sitting on a deposit that could supply the EV battery chain, or the defence industry, or the semiconductor supply chain, you've got a Squarespace site and a Mailchimp list with 200 people on it?

The world is small enough now that you have access to a much larger pool of buyers than ever before. That's the good news. The bad news is that so does everyone else. Every other junior with a drill program and a dream is one LinkedIn post away from the same investors you're trying to reach.

Your job is to be salespeople. Full stop. The geology is the product. But the product doesn't sell itself. It never has. Especially not when you're asking someone to wait 10-18 years for a return.

The Money's Out There

To close with the wisdom of Glengarry Glen Ross:

"The money's out there. You pick it up, it's yours. You don't, I have no sympathy for you."

The federal government just put $3.6 billion on the table. Allied nations are backing $18.5 billion in projects. The TSX Venture 50 saw average market cap growth of 775% last year, led by mining and critical minerals plays. The money is there. The political will is there. The global demand is there.

But none of that matters if nobody knows who you are.
If your story isn't compelling.
If your website reads like a regulatory filing.
If your idea of investor relations is waiting for someone to find you on Wealthsimple.

The rocks don't care about your timeline. And the market doesn't care about your deposit, unless you make them care.

Step up and sell yourself to the world. Because nobody else is going to do it for you.

// THE DIRT

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

Hit reply and send me “ginsu” and I’ll show you something rad.

Busy week this week for me, like Eminem once said, “I’ve been in the lab with a pen and a pad trying to get this damn label off… “. Miningandenergy.ca now gets more pageviews by 8 a.m. EST each day than it used to get in an entire week when I took it over.

I’m pouring effort into getting you all in front of the world, Canada should be the most resource rich nation in the world, we just need to set up some booths in Kmarts and sell our knives to the world.

-Lee

Special thanks to Eli from https://bullpen.finance/ for a tip about layout issues of the newsletter last week. Seems fixed now, go signup and say thanks.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 155 I was there, so was your competition, were you there? https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-155 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-155 Fri, 06 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0000 2026-03-06T17:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

Canada, you have the floor.

For now…

Listen, I'm not going to cover all the talks. There were dozens of other media reps in every room covering the content of those talks. I want to talk about those who were there to grow their business and reach. The exhibitors that put up the cash to get in front of the industry.

Because that's where the real signal is.

PDAC 2026 just wrapped, the 94th edition, and it shattered records. 32,155 participants from around the world packed the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the highest participation in the event's history. Over 1,326 exhibitors spread across both the North and South buildings, which were completely full for the first time. And this wasn't just the usual suspects showing up. 59 countries were represented on the exhibitor floor, from Barbados to Uzbekistan, from Chad to Papua New Guinea.​​

Let that sit for a moment. The world showed up in Toronto this week. And if your company is in the mining supply chain and you weren't there, you need to understand what you're now competing against.

The Booth Numbers Don't Lie

Here's what the floor looked like by exhibitor type. 473 booths in Trade Show North. 403 on the Investors Exchange. 389 in the main Trade Show. Plus Core Shack, Prospectors Tent, and hybrid exhibitors bridging multiple zones.​

The composition tells you everything about where this industry's attention sits:

  • 258 Junior Exploration Companies, the dreamers and the diggers, still the backbone of this convention

  • 124 Exploration & Mining Companies with projects underway

  • 93 Equipment Manufacturers, from drill rigs to exoskeletons (yes, Exoskeletons Canada had a booth)​

  • 81 Consulting Services firms fighting for attention, leads and clients

  • 71 Government bodies, provinces, territories, and sovereign nations all pitching their jurisdictions

  • 48 Technology companies and another 33 Software/IT firms, more than ever before

  • 21 Major Mining Companies, Barrick, BHP, Newmont, Rio Tinto, Teck, Vale, Agnico Eagle, Ivanhoe, the full roster​

The technology and software presence is what should catch your eye. GeologicAI, StratumAI, MinersAI, SYMX.AI, LithologIQ, Fleet Space Technologies, Exyn Technologies, the AI and autonomous mining crowd is no longer dabbling at PDAC. They're booking booths and pitching hard.​

59 Flags on the Floor

Canada obviously dominated with 931 exhibitors. But the international contingent was massive: 117 from the United States, 72 from Australia, 24 from Germany, 23 from China, 18 from the UK, 12 from France, 10 from Turkey, 8 from Finland.​

Germany brought a full federal pavilion, the German Pavilion: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, with Herrenknecht AG, CyPlus GmbH, GEA Group, and about a dozen more companies nested under one national banner. That's a country-level commitment to getting in front of the Canadian mining industry.​

China sent 23 exhibitors, including Zijin Mining Group (a major), Lingbao Gold, and a long list of equipment and drill manufacturers from Qingdao, Shandong, and Hebei provinces. These are companies building the actual tools that go into the ground.​

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Industry & Mineral Resources had a booth. Kazakhstan had three exhibitors including Aurora Minerals Group. The Mongolian National Mining Association set up shop. Countries like Guyana, Barbados, Greenland, and Namibia all had government or geological survey representation.​

When Chad's Ministry of Mines and Geology flies to Toronto for a booth at PDAC, the message is unmistakable: the global competition for mining investment and partnerships has never been fiercer.

The Commodity Map

Gold still reigns at PDAC, 326 exhibitors listed gold as a target commodity. But copper was right there at 222, reflecting the electrification supercycle narrative. Silver followed at 154.​

The critical minerals story was everywhere on the floor:

Commodity

Exhibitors

Gold

326

Copper

222

Silver

154

Lithium

54

REE & Electric Metals

54

Uranium

34

Cobalt

42

Nickel

70

54 lithium and 54 rare earth element exhibitors. That number has exploded in recent years. Companies like E3 Lithium, Frontier Lithium, American Lithium Corp., Avalon Advanced Materials, and Ucore Rare Metals are all betting the farm on the critical minerals mandate. Uranium had 34 exhibitors anchored by Cameco and Denison Mines, plus a wave of juniors in the Athabasca Basin play like CanAlaska Uranium.​

This aligns directly with what happened at the government level at the convention, Minister Hodgson announced $3.6 billion in new programs including a $1.5 billion First and Last Mile Fund and a $2 billion Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund. Thirty new partnerships under the Critical Minerals Production Alliance will unlock $12.1 billion in project capital with 12 allied partners, bringing the Alliance total to $18.5 billion.

Who's Exploring Where

The countries-of-exploration data from the exhibitor list is a heat map of where capital wants to go. 242 exhibitors are exploring in Canada, followed by 124 in the United States, 38 in Mexico, 37 in Australia, 36 in Peru, 27 in Chile, 20 in Argentina, 19 in Brazil, and 17 in Colombia.​

But here's the part that should sharpen your attention: 17 foreign-domiciled companies listed Canada as an exploration target. Australian firms like FireFly Metals, Mammoth Minerals, Metals Australia, Olympio Metals, and Elevra Lithium are actively exploring on Canadian soil. So are Newmont, Rio Tinto, Hecla, and South32. The Australians alone sent 72 exhibitors to PDAC, more than Germany, China, and the UK combined.​

This is happening precisely because Canada and Australia just formalized a critical minerals alliance. Prime Minister Carney, in Australia this same week, announced that together the two countries hold 34% of global lithium, 32% of uranium, and 41% of iron ore, backed by a $25 billion combined war chest.

The Pavilion Arms Race

Sovereign nations are treating PDAC like a trade mission destination. The convention floor hosted national pavilions from:

  • Argentina Mining Pavilion

  • Brasil Pavilion

  • German Pavilion (Federal Ministry level)

  • Mexico Pavilion

  • MineAfrica Pavilion (Chad, Guinea, DRC)

  • Mining Finland

  • Italian Trade Agency (multiple companies)

  • Northern Ontario Mining Showcase (a pavilion within Canada, basically a province-within-a-province pitch)

  • Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership

  • Alberta Pavilion​

Provincial governments from British Columbia, Québec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories all had booths. So did the City of Greater Sudbury, City of Timmins, and the City of Yellowknife. Municipalities competing for mining investment at an international convention, that's a new level of urgency.​

Even the European Union had a booth. Business France was there. The US Department of Energy set up in Trade Show North.​

The Underdogs and the Wildcards

Some of the most interesting stories on the floor weren't the majors. They were the exhibitors that signal where this industry is heading:

Exoskeletons Canada, selling wearable exoskeleton technology for mine workers. This isn't science fiction anymore, it's a health services company with a booth at PDAC.​

Fleet Space Technologies (Australia), deploying satellite-enabled geophysical exploration. Garmin International and Infrastructure Networks were there for satellite communications, because remote mine sites still need connectivity.​

Four drone companies exhibited, Altohelix, Overhead Intelligence, Rosor Corp., and UVAD Technologies, alongside 17 remote sensing and mapping firms from six different countries.​

20 individual prospectors had booths in the Prospectors Tent, from Aubrey Budgell looking for gold, nickel, and uranium in Canada, to Carl E. Nelson covering exploration across a dozen Central and South American countries. The lone-wolf prospector still has a seat at the table, but they're now surrounded by AI companies and drone operators.​

Indigenous artisans, Inner Raven Beadwork, Wesley Havill Indigenous Art, Kagesheongai Crafts, Millside Ceramics, had booths at Level 300. Ten Indigenous business organizations and First Nations groups also exhibited, from the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business to Ontario First Nations Developers Association to the Manitoba Métis Federation. Indigenous partnership isn't a sidebar at PDAC anymore. It's integrated into the floor plan.​

The Workforce Signal

17 universities and colleges exhibited, from UBC Mining Engineering to Laurentian University to Luleå University of Technology (Sweden). ApprenticeSearch.com and the Canadian Union of Skilled Workers were there recruiting, geoespace.ca was showcasing a slick platform. So was DriverCheck Inc., offering health screening for mine site workers.​

The mining industry's talent crisis is being fought on the convention floor. When colleges book booths at PDAC, they're not there for the free coffee, they're competing for students who have options in tech, trades, and everything else.

The World Got Smaller This Week

Here's where we tie it together.

PDAC 2026 happened against the backdrop of the most turbulent trade environment in a generation. The US-Canada tariff war has dominated headlines, 25% tariffs, retaliatory measures, supply chain disruption. The US Supreme Court struck down certain IEEPA tariffs on Canada in February 2026, but the damage was done to assumptions about stable cross-border trade.​

At the same time, Mark Carney has been barnstorming the globe with his middle power thesis, that countries like Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the EU must build coalitions because the old rules-based order is crumbling under great-power bullying. He delivered the message in Davos, in Sydney, and it echoed through every hallway at PDAC.

Mining project deal values hit $70 billion in 2025, the highest in six years. Provincial governments are racing to streamline permitting, BC's Infrastructure Projects Act, Ontario's economy-unleashing legislation, Québec's single-authorization bill. Canada's Building Canada Act has referred 13 major projects to the new Major Projects Office, five of them mining.​

And at PDAC itself, 30 new critical minerals partnerships were signed, Canada and Australia deepened their alliance, and the federal government put $3.6 billion on the table.

The geopolitical reality is this: Canada has what the world wants. Copper, lithium, uranium, nickel, rare earths, cobalt. And the world, all 59 countries on that exhibitor floor, knows it.

So What Does This Mean for You?

If you're a Canadian mining company, an equipment supplier, a consulting firm, a technology vendor, or a service provider anywhere in this value chain, the competition just got a lot more crowded. A company from Qingdao is selling drill bits to the same buyers you are. A Finnish drilling company is bidding on the same contracts. A German engineering firm backed by a federal pavilion is pitching the same decision-makers.

1,326 exhibitors paid real money to stand on that floor. They staffed booths, flew teams to Toronto, printed banners, and shook hands for four days straight. That's not casual interest. That's commitment. And if you weren't there, or if you were there but your message was indistinguishable from the 1,325 others, then you've got a visibility problem in an industry where visibility is now a global competition.

The world got a whole lot smaller this week. Canada is front and center of the medium power movement, and the mining industry is the engine behind it. Your company isn't just competing with the outfit down the highway anymore. You're competing with 59 countries and 32,155 people who just proved they're paying attention.

Get your story straight. Get it in front of the right people. And get louder, because the floor is only getting more crowded.

// THE DIRT

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

The boys are off to Fort Erie today for a quick afternoon game and I realized something as I was driving them to the rink this morning to get on the bus, these kids might be more consistent than most people I know.

They show up everyday, early morning practice, school, dry-land training, dinner, homework then sleep.

Monday to Friday. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Then they get on the bus for a road trip to test their development and efforts against their competition. Practise is for development, games are for measurement.

If their head is in the right place, they’ll head into that game expecting to win and hating to lose. That’s the take away, if you’re putting in the reps you’re earning the right to have the mindset of expecting to win and hating to lose.

Walking around PDAC this week I saw thousands of people who have putting in the reps test their efforts and development against their competition.

Not only are they heading home from the conference with a stack full of leads they’re heading home with a measurement against their competition.

Well, at least those who decided to show up. Many forfeited and didn’t even get on the bus.

Do the work, get on the bus, measure yourself against your competition.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Btw, today is the very last day for the rad ad deal I have on right now. If you want to measure some effort and development for yourself, this is an easy in.
(5 spots left as of writing this)

-Lee

Special thanks to the Italian contingent for great coffee, the DR of Congo for the hearty laughs and my friends from Kazakhstan for the chocolates.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 154 Whelp. Here we go again, will we see $2/L gas this summer? https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-154 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-154 Tue, 03 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0000 2026-03-03T17:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

So it’s war then.

You went to bed Thursday with oil at $67. You woke up Saturday morning to a war.

If your inbox looks anything like mine, it's a mess of alerts, hot takes, and panicked forwards. So let's cut through it. Here's what I’ve observed happened over the past four days, what it means for Canadian mining and energy, and why the Medium Countries thesis we've been building in this series just got a whole lot more real.

Take these all with a grain of sand, this is a fluid situation right now.

Friday, February 27. Markets close. Oil's sitting around $67 WTI. Nuclear talks between the US and Iran, mediated by Oman in Geneva, have stalled. Trump had given Iran a 15-day deadline on February 19. That deadline passed with no deal. The largest US military buildup in the Middle East since the 2003 Iraq invasion was already underway.

Saturday, February 28, 1:15 a.m. ET. It starts. Over 100 US aircraft launch from land and sea. Israel sends 200 fighter jets, the largest combat sortie in IAF history, hitting roughly 500 targets across western and central Iran. The US calls it Operation Epic Fury. Israel calls it Operation Roaring Lion. Targets include Iran's missile infrastructure, naval forces, nuclear sites at Natanz and Fordow, and, critically, Supreme Leader Khamenei's compound in Tehran.

Saturday morning. Iranian state media confirms Khamenei is dead. Along with him: the head of the Revolutionary Guard, a senior security adviser, and reportedly around 40 other Iranian officials including the Defence Minister. Iran retaliates immediately, missile barrages targeting Israel, plus strikes on US military bases across six countries: Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE. Iran fires at civilian areas in the UAE and Bahrain. The IRGC claims to have hit 14 US bases.

Saturday afternoon. Iran's Revolutionary Guard broadcasts over maritime radio that the Strait of Hormuz is closed. There's no official closure, it's psychological warfare, but it works. War risk insurance gets cancelled. Shipping traffic through the strait drops 40-50% within hours. By Sunday it's down 81%. Just one crude tanker transits. Zero LNG carriers. Around 240 ships cluster near Bandar Abbas and Fujairah, waiting.

Sunday, March 1. The IRGC claims it hit the USS Abraham Lincoln with four ballistic missiles and struck three oil tankers in the Gulf. Iran hits Qatar's Ras Laffan facility, the single largest LNG plant on Earth, with drone strikes. QatarEnergy shuts down production and declares force majeure. That's 20% of the world's LNG supply, gone. European gas futures spike the most since the 2022 energy crisis. Oil surges 10%. Brent touches $80. WTI crosses $72. Three US troops are confirmed killed, the first American casualties. Trump says the operation could last four to five weeks.

Sunday night into Monday, March 2. Hezbollah launches missiles and drones at Israel from southern Lebanon, claiming it's retaliation for Khamenei's killing. Israel calls it "an official declaration of war by Hezbollah" and strikes Beirut's southern suburbs. The Lebanese government demands Hezbollah hand over its weapons and bans the group's military activity, a massive domestic political shift. Israel begins seizing areas of southern Lebanon. The conflict is no longer contained to Iran.

Monday, March 3. Oil keeps climbing. Brent hits a 19-month high near $80. WTI over $73. Iranian drones strike a fuel tanker in the Strait. Analysts at Bernstein raise their 2026 Brent forecast to $80 but warn prices could hit $120-$150 if the conflict drags on. Goldman says if Hormuz stays shut for a month, European gas prices could more than double. OPEC+ bumps production quotas by ~220,000 bpd, more than expected, but it's a rounding error against the disruption.

That's where we are this morning. A dead supreme leader, a power vacuum in Tehran, a second front in Lebanon, the world's most important energy chokepoint effectively closed, and no off-ramp in sight.

What It Means for Canadian M&E Industry

While all of this was unfolding, Energy Minister Tim Hodgson was standing at PDAC in Toronto, the biggest mining conference on the planet, delivering a keynote that suddenly sounded less like aspirational policy and more like a pitch the world desperately needed to hear.​

"The world right now is feeling incredibly insecure," Hodgson said. And then his phone started ringing. Countries, he wouldn't say which, calling Ottawa asking how fast Canadian energy producers can fill the gap.​

He was honest: "You don't change the amount of production of LNG or oil in days."

But here's the line that matters. The one that separates Canada from the chaos:

"Canada will never use our resources as a coercive tool."​

In a world where Russia turned off the gas to Europe, where China restricts rare earths whenever a dispute flares, where Iran just shut down 20% of global LNG by attacking its own neighbour's facilities, Canada is saying: our word means something. We show up. We deliver. We don't hold your energy security hostage.

That's the Medium Countries thesis in one sentence.

Eric Nuttall at Ninepoint called it a "massive, massive opportunity." He told BNN Bloomberg that Canadian oil sands and Clearwater represent decades of stable supply, and that equity valuations don't reflect where oil is heading. "All prior playbooks are not applicable," he said. Because this isn't a temporary spike followed by a reversion to the mean. This is a structural shift in how the world thinks about where its energy comes from.​

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the quiet part out loud on Monday: the world needs a new pipeline to Canada's West Coast, and the Iran conflict just made the case for her.​

The PDAC Numbers

Hodgson didn't just talk. He showed up with money:

  • 30 new partnerships across 10 allied countries, the EU, and the UN, unlocking $12.1 billion in critical minerals investment​

  • Total mobilized under the Critical Minerals Production Alliance: $18.5 billion in six months​

  • $3.6 billion in new investment in critical mineral mines and processing

  • $1.5 billion First and Last Mile Fund to move minerals from ground to processing

  • $2 billion Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund, the first of its kind, allowing Ottawa to make equity investments, loan guarantees, and offtake agreements with mines

"In trade negotiations… our critical minerals are cards in our hands, giving us an advantage as we engage in the world as it is, not as we wish it to be," Hodgson told the PDAC crowd.​

Canada produces 60+ minerals and metals from roughly 200 mines. The sector supports 724,000 jobs. $156 billion in GDP. Exports to 200 countries. World's leading producer of potash. Second in uranium. Third in palladium. Top-five in eleven others.​

And unlike the countries where half the world's supply currently comes from, nobody's launching drones at our processing facilities.

The Medium Country Moment

Edition 1, if you recall, in the previous series was about the rupture, the end of American-led globalization, Carney at Davos saying "the old order is not coming back".

Since then we've tracked medium countries building new partnerships: Canada and South Korea on defence and steel, Canada and the EU on battery minerals and rearmament, critical minerals becoming geopolitical cards.

This weekend just put up a giant billboard that says “Canada - Open for Business!”

Our neighbour to the south is currently busy, missiles flying, bases getting hit, a four-to-five-week military campaign underway, tariffs still live on allies. Washington is taking on the world. That's their choice.

Canada's making a different one. Arms open. Phone answered. Billions deployed. Reliable, predictable, stable. The kind of boring that's worth a premium when tankers are burning in the Strait of Hormuz.

Carney said it at Davos: "Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu".​

Monday at PDAC, Canada set the table. The phone is ringing. And we picked up.

// THE DIRT

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

I’m heading into PDAC tomorrow to have another gander, hit reply if you’ve got a booth and I’ll try to swing by and say hello.

HUGE updates to the site this week, the new events section is live, so is the “On Air” section (both have updates to come still) as well as a deals section that is going to be coming online this week.

I’d love if you took a look at the updates to the sites that I’ve been working on. I’m pretty proud of it.

Last week to get the rad ad deal I have on right now, on boarding more advertisers each day. I appreciate you all.
(7 spots left as of writing this)

-Lee

Horse for sale, bites often, temperamental, no heat, no A/C - $500 OBO

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 153 Time Marches On. Wait, no, it appears to be sprinting now. Time to sell the horse! https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-153 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-153 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 17:00:00 +0000 2026-02-27T17:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

The Pan to the Trommel

The Layoff Wave Meets the AI Wave

Once upon a time, prospectors stood knee‑deep in icy creeks, swirling pans in search of colour. Then came the rocker box, the sluice, the trommel, the dragline dredge, each one a machine that moved more earth and left fewer hands in the water. Every wave of progress pulled some workers out and pulled others forward.

This time, the shift is happening at code speed.

In the past few weeks, headlines have been relentless. Amazon, Salesforce, Accenture, law firms, logistics firms, layoffs hitting every corner of the economy. Research firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas counted over 54,000 layoffs in 2025 where companies explicitly blamed AI, up from a few thousand two years earlier. Goldman Sachs now estimates AI is responsible for 5,000–10,000 net job losses per month in exposed industries.

At Davos, the IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva called it a “tsunami.” On LinkedIn, it looks like a tide of green “Open to Work” banners.

The Horse to the Car, at Software Speed

In earlier cycles, robots on assembly lines, offshore call centers, laid‑off workers often found similar jobs a few postcodes away. The skills still mattered; the industry still wanted you.

This time, companies are cutting in expectation of AI, not because it’s outperforming humans yet. Harvard Business Review calls these “pre‑emptive” cuts. Forrester sees “AI‑washing”, financial housekeeping dressed up as futurism. Gartner predicts half of the firms making AI‑justified layoffs will rehire similar roles by 2027.

It’s not just a horse‑to‑car moment. It’s a horse‑to‑car transformation happening at fiber‑optic velocity, fast enough that people are rewriting their CVs while the new road is still being paved.

Mining and Energy industries seem oddly insulated

While white‑collar sectors are awash with displaced talent, mining and energy are short on people.

AI is showing up in pits, plants, and pipelines fast. Spending on AI in mining is set to climb from $2.7 billion in 2024 to over $13 billion by 2029, and broader digital integration could top $67 billion by 2032. In oil and gas, BCG sees 30–70% EBIT gains for those going all‑in on AI.

But no one’s cutting jobs. They can’t fill them.

Canada’s mining sector alone is projected to need 190,000+ workers by 2034, with a possible shortfall of 40,000 even under baseline conditions. The unemployed‑to‑vacancy ratio has dipped below 1.0. In the U.S., more than half of mining workers could retire by 2029. Cameco and others are already missing output targets simply because there aren’t enough qualified people.

Meanwhile, the AI boom itself is fuelling new demand for critical minerals and stable baseload power, copper, lithium, uranium, and the electrons to feed global data centers.

Jobs That Change, Not Vanish

Inside mines and energy assets, the biggest changes are coming to routine and reporting tasks, monitoring, compliance, safety logs, logistics. One recent study suggests 40% of mining engineering functions could be transformed by 2030, not eliminated but rewritten around data, remote operations, and automation oversight.

Hybrid talent, people who understand both operations and analytics, is emerging as the new backbone. New positions are springing up in autonomous fleet control, drone monitoring, data analysis, cybersecurity for OT, and digital HR. Junior miners and mid‑tiers, less burdened by legacy systems, are moving fastest.

The Opportunity Hiding in the Chaos

By the second half of 2026, trends will start to formalize:

  • Some companies will rehire some AI‑cut roles under new job designs.

  • Mining’s labour crunch will show up in production reports, not headlines.

  • Contract work around data, HR, ESG, and analytics will expand to fill the gaps.

That’s where the two currents meet: thousands of newly available data and systems professionals from tech and consulting, and a resource sector in urgent need of digital capacity.

If you’re running a mining or energy operation, now is the time to match those stranded skills to real work, from modernizing ESG reporting to scoping realistic AI pilots before budgets vanish.

This isn’t doom. It’s the kind of messy middle that has always built new industries, from the prospector’s pan to the trommel, from the horse to the car. The people and companies that adapt fastest will not just survive this wave, they’ll own the shoreline when it recedes.

// THE DIRT

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

So what about me, where does AI leave me? Well dear reader, I’m glad you asked. I’m still ok.

In a way I’ve been unemployable for years, can’t be laid off that way…

For more than 2 decades I’ve been a self employed consultant spending most of my days trying to stay a step or two ahead of the rest.

Remember the old “I’m not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night” commercials from a while ago?

ChatGPT/Claude is the new Holiday Inn Express.

It gives those who embrace it a few extra steps on the rest of the lot, now you can spot the trends and figure out how to do it before someone else.

That’s all this game has ever been, who’s first.

First to find gold, first to sell shovels, first to invest…

I'm leaning in hard, when you look at the billions being poured into AI it’s hard not to see where this trend is going.

I know there's no gas stations near my house yet, and I still have more feed than I know what to do with, but it’s time to sell the horse.

… and on that note, I’d love if you took a look at the updates to the sites that I’ve been working on. I’m pretty proud of it.

And for those who’ve read this far down, don’t forget about the rad deal I have on right now!
(Thank you to the 5 who jumped on this so far! 15 spots left as of writing this)

-Lee

Horse for sale, bites often, temperamental, no heat, no A/C - $500 OBO

]]> What is this, Lee?!? Well, I have something to share and need your attention. https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/what-is-this-lee https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/what-is-this-lee Thu, 26 Feb 2026 18:08:37 +0000 2026-02-26T18:08:37Z Lee Tengum

Hey Everyone,

As long time readers of The Dispatch I wanted to first of all thank you for your continued readership. With your help The Dispatch has grown into one of the most read newsletters in the Mining & Energy space.

Now, I know, not a lot of players in the Mining & Energy space.
Loads in Mining, even bigger ones in Energy…
but not a lot in both… (let me have this win)

That’s it, that’s what makes Canada great, our medium-ness. M&E is perfectly Medium and I’m truly happy with that.

Over the past 1.5 years I’ve taken something that would struggle to get a few hundred visits per day and grown it into something that I’m proud of.

This is from my internal dashboard showing 24hr metrics

Now, aside from web traffic growing massively, I’ve also been working really hard at optimizing for AI, it's everywhere and when someone asks an LLM (Alexa, Meta Glasses, Facebook Search, Google Search etc) AI indexes are being queried early and often.

There's no escape from it, it’s here to stay.

This means that the more places we can format and structure for AI, the more often your content will appear. This has been paying dividends, already I’ve seen huge increase in traffic originating from ChatGPT where the user searched for something and ChatGPT returned a link to the content on M&E.

In many cases they have become newsletter subscribers, awesome! And why wouldn’t they, with all it’s near-infinite wisdom and power, ChatGPT felt that sending this user to my site would be a great fit for them.

So in addition to the new site looking better, I’ve been putting an bit more of an emphasis on getting people onto The Dispatch's Mailing list, the content better formatted and structured.

So much cleaner, I'm very proud of this and how I’ll be able to use it to garner you more attention!

I have a deal for you!

I’m asking for some support here and putting together something for you that I know will have a significant ROI for you. I know my audience, who my readers are and how the advertising space / media buying world works.

But it comes with a caveat, in exchange for the significant price reduction, you agree to provide feedback on how successful, or not (experiments are experiments after all) the campaign is.

I will guarantee you at least 200k impressions (likely net you closer to 300k all said and done) and it will 100% be the best ad money you've spent in a long time.

$299 for your ad in rotation on the homepage and on the header of the category pages for 3 months. $100 bucks a month…

You get a sweet deal on advertising (and help cover some goalie gear for Sawyer) and I get the info I need to tune my ad system to get even better.

Win, win, win.

Buy Now via PayPal - $299

Note: It’s capped at 20 advertisers, not for any sort of marketing reasons, rather so I can properly tune and optimize during this test.

Again, thank you all for being readers and supporters.

I appreciate you all.

-Lee

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 152 The Medium Countries, Part 10: Perfectly Medium https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-152 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-152 Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:00:00 +0000 2026-02-24T17:00:00Z

THE DISPATCH

Sponsor

Level up your welding and fabrication game.

Messer’s Edmonton Expo (Apr 30, 2026) is a one‑day deep dive into gases, gear, and demos.

Scan the code, grab a spot, and bring your team!

 

Scan the code to learn more and register

Part 10 of a 10 part series on the global reshaping.

The rise of the Medium Countries.

Silver as a System, Not a Failure

In Italy, the script was familiar and strange at the same time. Canada’s women lost 2–1 to the U.S. in overtime for silver. The men did the same, dropping a 2–1 OT heartbreaker to an American team that hadn’t won Olympic gold since 1980. Two finals, two silvers, two overtime losses to the same rival.

If you only track gold medals, this looks like failure. But listen to how the players and coaches talked afterward. Jon Cooper said he “couldn’t be more proud of the group” and called it “a flawless performance” that just fell one shot short. On the women’s side, this was still a tournament where Marie‑Philip Poulin became the all‑time leading Olympic goal scorer before the final flipped on a bounce in three‑on‑three overtime.

Canada’s identity in hockey has never been “we win every time.” It’s “we are always there.” Men’s or women’s, juniors or pros, NHLers or not, if there’s a big game happening, Canada is in the bracket, usually in the medal round, and very often on the ice when the trophy is handed out. That’s not domination. That’s system performance.

Canada as a Perfectly Medium Country

Zoom out from the rink and you get the same shape. Canada is not a superpower. We don’t set the global rules by decree. But look at where we consistently show up:

  • Trade and logistics: A 2026 strategy built around doubling exports to non‑U.S. markets, anchored in ports, rail, and west‑facing infrastructure.

  • Mining and energy: A top‑tier producer of the metals, fuels and molecules everyone else needs for their transitions, without being OPEC, China or the U.S.

  • Alliances: The only non‑European country inside the EU’s SAFE defence‑loans tent, a founding member of the Minerals Security Partnership, a bridge between Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

We don’t win every championship. We’re not trying to be the global hegemon. But we are very deliberately building a world where a medium country with world‑class systems, trade, energy, institutions, companies, can thrive without asking for permission from whoever has the biggest GDP that year.

If this 10‑part series has had a thesis, it’s this: Canada is not an exception to the medium‑country story. It’s a prototype.

What “Medium” Looks Like in Business

You see the same pattern at the company level. We don’t have a single “Saudi Aramco of copper” or a “Meta of AI,” and that’s fine. What we do have is a dense layer of firms that are medium in size, but world‑class in their lanes. A few examples worth plugging as we close this out:

  • Brookfield Renewable
    Headquartered in Canada, it’s not the biggest power company on earth, but it’s becoming one of the go‑to players for AI‑era electricity, with 43 GW of operating capacity, a 227 GW development pipeline, and deals to supply giants like Microsoft in top data‑centre markets. It’s a medium‑country champion building the wiring for the new digital economy, from renewables to nuclear.​

  • Tecnar / Lumine™ (NRC mining tech in the wild)
    Born out of National Research Council work on high‑efficiency mining, Lumine™ uses LIBS sensors plus AI to scan ore on conveyor belts in real time, letting operators sort rock more precisely and cut energy use by up to 20 per cent. The tech is being field‑tested at scale in South Africa, licensed to Quebec‑based Tecnar, which has grown from 2 to 45 employees and 500 clients by turning Canadian research into commercial reality. That’s medium‑sized, globally relevant, and exactly what a smart medium country should be exporting.​

  • LaserAg and e2Sense (cross‑sector medium)
    The same LIBS backbone that reads ores has been spun into LaserAg’s QUANTUM system for ultra‑fast soil and plant‑tissue analysis, and into e2Sense for structural‑health monitoring of large assets, up to and including airframes for a major commercial aircraft manufacturer. None of these companies will ever be household names. All of them are proof that Canadian SMEs can live at the intersection of mining, agriculture, aviation and climate tech, and sell to the world.​

You could build a much longer list in mining, midstream, tech, and infrastructure. The point isn’t to crown a new set of national champions. It’s to notice the shape: lots of medium‑sized, deeply competent firms, embedded in global supply chains, punching above their weight because the system around them works.

The Medium Alignment Canada Exemplifies

Over ten editions we’ve walked through Hanwha and Algoma, SAFE and the European bridge, the Gulf capital arc, the India corridor, Trump’s decertification threats, Cuba’s fuel crisis, grid reliability and the supply‑chain wars. Different stories, same pattern:

  • Medium countries teaming up instead of lining up behind a single patron.

  • Supply chains and infrastructure (ports, grids, certification, minerals) becoming the real arena of power.

  • Canada choosing, again and again, to be in the game, not the hegemon, not the swing‑state victim, but the reliable, world‑class player everyone wants on their roster.

That’s exactly what just played out on Olympic ice. The U.S. took the golds this time. Good for them. But the teams everyone in the building measured themselves against, in system design, consistency, and expectation, were still wearing the maple leaf.

As we close this series, that’s the picture I want to leave you with: Canada as perfectly medium. Not average. Not timid. A country, and a layer of companies, that believe being consistently world‑class is more important than winning every final, and that in a world of volatile hegemonies and weaponized supply chains, that might be the most powerful position of all.

// THE DIRT

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. "Reading war news aboard streetcar. San Francisco, California" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/1f015110-fbed-0131-8e92-58d385a7bbd0

FEATURED RELEASE

Do you have a release you want to make sure is covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

FEATURED STORY

Have a story or update you want covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

I think the entire nation felt what it was like to be a hockey parent this past week.

As upset as you can be that they lost, you can’t help but beam with pride at how great they are. We controlled both games, we dominated and in the end it just didn’t go our way.

We’re still a scrappy little country, with 1/10 of the population and a fraction of the resources of our adversary, and yet… we hold our own.

Well done Canada, 2 silver medals in hockey is an impressive continuation of our legacy and dominance.

-Lee

Nostalgia - The feeling you get when your youth says hello.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 151 The Medium Countries, Part 9: The Supply Chain Wars – How Critical Minerals Became the New Sanctions Regime https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-151 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-151 Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:00:21 +0000 2026-02-20T17:00:21Z

THE DISPATCH

Featured Company

The PIP! is a procurement intelligence platform that monitors municipal council meetings across Canada to identify funded opportunities before they become public tenders.

By providing early access to project details and decision-maker contact information, Pre-Bid Spy helps businesses build relationships and win contracts before the competition even knows they exist.

Learn more at thepip.ca

Part 9 of a 10 part series on the global reshaping.

The rise of the Medium Countries.

“Critical minerals” have quietly moved from climate jargon to the centre of security policy. The U.S. now hosts a Critical Minerals Ministerial at State, not Environment, and has tied minerals to national security in a new executive order on **“processed critical minerals and their derivatives.” China has already shown how sharp this tool can be, tightening exports of gallium, germanium, graphite and rare earths whenever disputes flare.

The result is a new kind of sanctions regime where supply chains themselves are the weapon. Nobody needs to ban EVs or wind turbines outright if you can squeeze the materials and processing capacity they rely on.

From Tariffs to Chokepoints

Old‑school pressure used tariffs, quotas and embargoes. The 2026 playbook goes further. Washington’s latest order lets the president curb or condition imports of processed minerals on security grounds, explicitly targeting segments where China dominates refining. Beijing, for its part, has used export controls on gallium, germanium and graphite, plus tighter rare‑earth management, as precise levers in specific rows.

Analysts now talk about critical minerals as “asymmetric” assets because policy, not geology, increasingly decides who wins. Sanctions look less like press conferences and more like licence delays, origin rules, and security reviews that quietly reshape who can buy what from whom.

Canada’s Move: Redraw the Export Map

Canada’s answer is to change the map, not the physics. Carney’s 2026 trade strategy stakes out a clear goal: double exports to non‑U.S. markets by 2035. The plan leans on three pillars:

  • Leverage the geology – 30‑plus critical minerals, from lithium and nickel to potash and uranium, as bargaining chips in multiple directions, not just south.

  • Build the plumbing – ports, rail, transmission and terminals to move those volumes to Europe, Asia and the Gulf.

  • Embed in alliances – the U.S.‑led Minerals Security Partnership, EU’s SAFE/CRMA, India and Gulf corridors, and G7 frameworks that lock supply into political relationships.

That’s why you keep seeing Canada in rooms like the 2026 Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington: we’re positioning our minerals inside many partners’ strategies so no single chokepoint can be turned entirely against us.

Medium Countries Lean In

Other medium‑sized resource powers are running the same playbook:

  • Chile uses copper and lithium to demand more local processing and better terms.

  • Australia tightens screens on Chinese investment while courting Japanese, Korean, U.S. and EU capital.

  • Indonesia uses nickel export bans and downstream rules to force smelter and refinery build‑out.

The through‑line: offtake and JV choices are now geopolitical decisions, not just pricing questions. Canada’s deals with Europe (SAFE/CRMA), India, and the Gulf all reflect the same question: who do we want to be tied to when things get rough?

Why It Matters on the Ground

For projects and portfolios, this isn’t academic:

  • Offtakes will increasingly hinge on origin, ESG, and alliance politics as much as volume and price.

  • Security reviews will slow and complicate deals involving strategic buyers or sensitive destinations.

  • Capital stacks built around a single state‑backed source may narrow your future customer base if that state is treated as a rival elsewhere.

The upside: well‑located assets in trusted jurisdictions become more valuable precisely because they can plug into multiple supply‑chain strategies. The downside: anyone still treating critical minerals as just another commodity is going to discover, the hard way, that in 2026 the real sanctions list is the one written into your supply contracts.

// THE DIRT

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. "Reading war news aboard streetcar. San Francisco, California" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/1f015110-fbed-0131-8e92-58d385a7bbd0

FEATURED RELEASE

Do you have a release you want to make sure is covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

FEATURED STORY

Have a story or update you want covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

The kids are gone on a road trip to Ottawa and Quebec this weekend, with today’s game being a late 8pm start they’re using the morning to go for an easy skate on the Rideau Canal. That’s a Canadian Bucket List experience for them, not sure if they all know it yet though 🫠 

I’ve been having some great conversations around ThePip.ca this week and I keep getting asked if I can do some of this automation stuff for the companies that I’ve talking to, so I’ve put together a service to help with integrating AI into your company.

If you’ve had questions around using AI in your company and not sure what that would look like, send me a message and we can chat.

-Lee

Nostalgia - The feeling you get when your youth says hello.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 150 What’s SAFE and Why Are We Now Part of It? https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-150 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-150 Tue, 17 Feb 2026 17:00:22 +0000 2026-02-17T17:00:22Z

THE DISPATCH

Meet Sawyer

In a way, as a reader of The Dispatch, you’ve been a follower of Sawyer’s hockey career as it’s getting started.

Figured it was time to share the link to his profile so you can follow along properly as we head into playoffs.
 

» Sawyer’s Stats Page «

Btw, clicks to his profile help him climb the ranks.

Yup, waaay more hair than me.

Part 8 of a 10 part series on the global reshaping.

The rise of the Medium Countries.

In a month when Trump is threatening to “decertify” Canadian aircraft and Europe is buying shells as fast as factories can stamp them out, Canada just did something that sounds technocratic but is anything but: we bought our way into Europe’s rearmament bank.

The instrument is called SAFE – Security Action for Europe – a €150‑billion (≈CAD $244‑billion) loans‑for‑weapons program that sits at the heart of the EU’s Readiness 2030 defence plan. As of this month, Canada isn’t just applauding from the sidelines. The Carney government has formally secured Canada’s participation in SAFE, making us the first non‑European country inside the tent.

For a series about how medium countries are building their own bridges, this is a big one.

What SAFE Actually Is

SAFE is Europe’s answer to a pair of uncomfortable truths:

  • Russia has turned ammunition stockpiles and artillery production into a test of Western staying power in Ukraine.

  • The United States, now led by a president who openly questions alliances, may not be a reliable backstop forever.

Under SAFE, the EU raises up to €150 billion and offers long‑maturity, low‑interest loans to member states so they can:

  • Refill depleted stocks of shells, missiles, drones, and air defence systems.

  • Co‑finance new production lines and joint procurement programs.

  • Standardise equipment and build a more integrated European defence‑industrial base.

There’s a catch: to tap SAFE money, states are supposed to buy European (or from trusted integrated partners). That’s the carrot for industry. And thanks to Carney’s November 30, 2025 deal, Canada is now one of those partners.

What Canada Just Signed Up For

The official readouts from Ottawa and Brussels all hit the same notes. SAFE gives Canada:

  • Preferred status in EU defence procurement tied to SAFE.

  • A seat at the table as Europe spends hundreds of billions modernising its forces.

  • A new channel to attract European defence investment into Canadian plants, R&D and dual‑use industries.

The Prime Minister’s office calls it “a historic step that deepens Canada’s partnership with Europe” and promises “massive private investment and new, higher‑paying careers in Canada’s defence and advanced manufacturing sectors.”

Defence Minister David McGuinty and his team have since inked follow‑up understandings in Munich, outlining how Canadian companies can:

  • Act as eligible suppliers in SAFE‑financed projects.

  • Count significant Canadian content in joint bids with European primes.

  • Use Ottawa’s new Defence Investment Agency to navigate EU opportunities and co‑fund capacity at home.

In plain language: when EU states borrow SAFE money to buy systems, Canadian firms are now in the preferred‑partner bucket instead of the generic “third country” bin. That’s a structural shift.

Why a Medium Country Wants In

From a medium‑country perspective, SAFE hits three of the big themes we’ve been exploring all series.

1. A second industrial anchor besides Washington

Canada has lived through decades of U.S. defence dependence: ITAR bottlenecks, Buy American rules, and now a U.S. president threatening tariffs and “decertification” of Canadian aircraft over a business‑jet spat. SAFE doesn’t replace the U.S., but it gives Ottawa:

  • A parallel ecosystem where Canadian companies can scale without relying solely on U.S. demand.

  • A way to hedge against U.S. political swings by plugging into EU‑led joint procurement and long‑term production runs.

In medium‑country terms, that’s classic variable geometry: don’t exit the old alliance, but make sure you have options when the hegemon wakes up in a bad mood.

2. An industrial policy tool hiding inside a defence program

SAFE is framed as helping Europe arm itself, but it doubles as an industrial policy engine. Ottawa’s communications around the deal are explicit: participation is meant to drive investment into:

  • Advanced manufacturing and machining.

  • Complex electronics, sensors, and software.

  • Dual‑use tech that straddles defence, mining, energy, and digital infrastructure.

In other words, the same ecosystem that builds guidance systems, radars, or unmanned platforms can also build monitoring tech for pipelines, smelters, and mines; the same secure‑supply logic that Europe applies to missiles applies to critical minerals, steel, fuels and battery inputs.

3. A seat in Europe’s new security architecture

Joining SAFE signals that Canada intends to be more than a polite NATO passenger. It cements the idea from earlier editions — the European Defence Bridge — that Canada is now structurally tied into Europe’s hard‑power buildup, not just its climate and trade agendas.

The Trade‑Offs and the Fine Print

None of this is free. SAFE participation comes bundled with expectations.

  • More defence spending, faster. SAFE doesn’t directly fund Canadian purchases, but Brussels will expect Canada to keep stepping up – from air defence contributions in Europe to maritime presence in the North Atlantic and Arctic.

  • EU rules will matter more. Export controls, ESG standards, tech‑security screens and content rules coming out of Brussels will increasingly shape what Canadian firms can build and where they can sell it.

  • Europe gains leverage, too. By tying more of our industrial base to EU demand, we gain resilience versus the U.S. but also become more sensitive to European politics, from procurement squabbles to climate‑policy fights.

For a medium country, that’s the constant balancing act: trade one big dependency for a portfolio of dependencies, and hope the diversification buys you room to manoeuvre.

Why SAFE Belongs in a Mining & Energy Newsletter

On the surface, SAFE is a defence‑sector acronym. Underneath, it’s very much about rocks, molecules, and electrons.

  • SAFE‑financed systems will need steel, aluminium, explosives, fuels, rare earths, and electronics — all of which tie directly back to mining, energy, and critical‑minerals supply chains.

  • Europe’s rearmament is unfolding alongside its Green Deal Industrial Plan and Critical Raw Materials Act, which explicitly call for diversified, “trusted” sources of lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and uranium.

  • Canada’s pitch into SAFE leans heavily on our role as a secure supplier of critical minerals and energy, not just a builder of finished kit.

For operators and investors in this audience, that means SAFE is another piece of the same story we’ve been telling from Korea to Qatar to India:

  • If you’re sitting on a deposit or project that can feed into European defence, grid, or battery supply, your offtake conversations just got more interesting.

  • If you’re building tech that sits at the edge between defence and industrial applications — sensors, AI, control systems — the SAFE bridge is one more lane you can drive down.

In a world where certification can be politicised in a tweet, where fuel shortages can ground tourism in Cuba, and where blackouts can idle mines and data centres, SAFE is Europe and Canada trying to hard‑wire some stability back into the system — with medium countries positioning themselves not as spectators, but as co‑architects.

That’s why we’re in. The question now is what we do with the seat.

// THE DIRT

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. "Reading war news aboard streetcar. San Francisco, California" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/1f015110-fbed-0131-8e92-58d385a7bbd0

FEATURED RELEASE

Do you have a release you want to make sure is covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

FEATURED STORY

Have a story or update you want covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

It’s been a week.

I lost my grandmother last week and my father’s sister (unrelated to my grandmother) is now not doing well. It’s hard to be on the other side of the country when things fall apart for those you love.

With all our technology making it easier to connect more regularly there’s still no digital substitute for a hug.

I’m reminded on a morning like this that the easiest way to forget about the hard things in life is to do harder things.

Head down, press on, stay the course.
Go forward as you intend to go on.

Try.

I know that’s not a Nike level slogan like Just Do It, but “Try” might just be the slogan I need on a T-Shirt most days.

Have a great week all, to quote Red Green:
“I’m Pullin’ for ya, we’re all in this together. “

-Lee

Nostalgia - The feeling you get when your youth says hello.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 149 Power Grids, Blackouts, and the New Politics of Keeping the New Economy Running https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-149 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-149 Fri, 13 Feb 2026 17:00:18 +0000 2026-02-13T17:00:18Z

THE DISPATCH

Meet Sawyer

In a way, as a reader of The Dispatch, you’ve been a follower of Sawyer’s hockey career as it’s getting started.

Figured it was time to share the link to his profile so you can follow along properly as we head into playoffs.
 

» Sawyer’s Stats Page «

Yup, waaay more hair than me.

Part 7 of a 10 part series on the global reshaping.

The rise of the Medium Countries.

If the last edition was about what happens when a single tweet threatens to ground Canadian aircraft, this one is about something even more fundamental: what happens when the power goes out. Not in the abstract, but in real places, in real projects, at the exact moment the world is trying to electrify everything from haul trucks to hyperscale AI clusters.

Across the map, the stories are piling up. South Africa’s mines spent most of the last decade planning around load‑shedding, a polite term for rolling blackouts that forced operations to shut off entire shafts and plants according to a schedule — until an unexpected improvement in 2025 finally gave them a breather. Chile, the world’s top copper producer, watched a massive blackout halt production and rattle markets. Texas nearly crashed its grid in 2021, and grid planners are still using that storm as a cautionary tale about what happens when demand spikes faster than infrastructure.

Now add a new kind of load: AI data centres and electrified industrial fleets, pulling more power than anyone modelled even five years ago. In Virginia, data centres already consume about a quarter of all electricity in the state, with similar shares in Ireland, and projections that data centres could drive over 500 TWh of global consumption by 2026. The result is a simple but alarming equation: demand is growing faster than our ability to build generation, transmission, and storage.

For medium countries, the question isn’t theoretical. It’s survival.

The New Economy’s Power Hunger

Three sectors are colliding on the grid at once.

  • Mining and metals are electrifying mobile fleets and processing plants to cut emissions and operating costs. EY Canada’s latest work frames fleet electrification and grid‑connected mines as a competitive differentiator, but also flags grid capacity and on‑site charging infrastructure as immediate engineering constraints.

  • Heavy industry and manufacturing — from smelters to battery plants — are shifting from on‑site combustion to electric furnaces and heat pumps, pushing peak loads higher and making uninterrupted power a condition for investment.

  • Digital infrastructure — AI clusters, data centres, 5G networks — is scaling at an unprecedented rate, with AI‑dense racks moving from 40 kW toward 85 kW today and 200–250 kW by 2030.

In some regions, like northern Virginia and parts of Ireland, data centres are already responsible for more than 20 per cent of total electricity consumption, forcing grid operators to turn away new connection requests or enforce moratoriums on new facilities. In parallel, NERC and other reliability bodies are warning that AI‑driven load growth is outpacing the capacity of grids and interconnections to keep up.

This isn’t just an engineering problem. It’s a political one. Whoever controls access to firm power in this environment controls where the next wave of investment goes.

When Blackouts Shut Off Growth

We’ve already seen what happens when grids can’t keep up.

  • In South Africa, years of under‑investment and mismanagement at Eskom led to chronic load‑shedding, with Stage 3 and Stage 6 blackouts slicing hours out of each day. Mining operations had to redesign shift schedules, invest in diesel backup, and factor “no power” days into production plans. Only in 2025 did the Minerals Council report that improved availability had delivered more than 250 days without load‑shedding, easing a constraint that had become a national joke and a serious economic brake.

  • In Chile, a nationwide blackout that hit Santiago and the mining north halted copper production and forced the government to declare an emergency. The country’s reliance on hydropower made it vulnerable to climate‑driven droughts, turning weather into a supply‑risk factor for one of the world’s most important metals.​

  • In North America and Europe, grid planners are sounding the alarm that interconnection queues are measured in years, not months, and that transmission upgrades are lagging both renewables and new loads.

For companies planning multi‑billion‑dollar mines, smelters, AI campuses, or battery plants, this translates directly into risk. A grid that can’t guarantee stable power is a grid that makes projects unfinanceable.

Medium Countries Redesign the Grid Playbook

Medium countries don’t control OPEC. They don’t control global reserve currencies. But they can control how they build their grids. The emerging playbook has a few common threads.

1. Treat firm power as industrial policy, not just utility business
Canada’s federal government has begun to frame grid reliability and affordability as part of its industrial strategy, not just a household issue. Recent announcements include funding for smart‑grid pilots and regulatory innovation in Alberta aimed at improving grid resilience and integrating storage. Similar moves are underway in Australia, parts of Latin America, and across the Nordics, where transmission planning is explicitly tied to mining and industrial clusters.

2. Co‑locate generation with load, especially in resource hubs
Instead of assuming every new mine, data centre or plant will draw from an already‑stressed grid, medium countries are experimenting with behind‑the‑fence and co‑located solutions:

  • On‑site solar, wind, and storage sized to cover a large chunk of demand.

  • Small modular reactors (SMRs) and microgrids being studied for remote mining camps and northern communities.

  • Direct power‑purchase agreements (PPAs) with independent producers that bundle firming services and storage.

The goal is simple: reduce the number of single‑points‑of‑failure between your project and its electrons.

3. Prioritize grid access as a strategic asset
As connection queues lengthen and grid capacity becomes scarce, access to a substation or transmission corridor becomes an asset as real as a mineral claim. We’re already seeing:

  • AI companies bidding aggressively for scarce megawatts in data‑centre hubs, then reselling excess capacity.

  • Mining and industrial players lobbying for priority access or dedicated lines in regions where they anchor local economies.

Medium‑country governments that understand this are starting to reserve capacity for strategic loads — critical minerals processing, key industries, defence‑related facilities — rather than letting first‑come, first‑served rules decide who gets to plug in.

Keeping the New Economy Running

The “new economy” is often described in abstract terms: AI, EVs, green steel, clean hydrogen. Underneath all of that is a very old requirement: stable, affordable power on demand.

  • A copper mine feeding EVs is worthless if blackouts shut its mill for four hours every afternoon.

  • A battery plant loses its edge if grid interruptions damage production runs.

  • An AI campus that drops offline during training runs because of a local voltage sag can burn millions in lost compute time.

For investors, operators, and policy‑makers in medium countries, grid design is no longer background infrastructure. It’s the frontline of competitiveness. The jurisdictions that can keep the lights on — and control the politics that surround those lights — will host the next generation of mines, mills, data centres, and factories. The ones that can’t will watch projects, capital and talent flow somewhere else.

The flicker at the edge of your monitor or the brief outage at the plant isn’t just an annoyance. It’s a signal. The question is whether we treat it as an early warning or as the new normal.

// THE DIRT

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. "Reading war news aboard streetcar. San Francisco, California" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/1f015110-fbed-0131-8e92-58d385a7bbd0

FEATURED RELEASE

Do you have a release you want to make sure is covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

FEATURED STORY

Have a story or update you want covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

Rare day off for the kids today, Monday as well, so we’re going to go checkout some Toronto sights today. We have a pair of home games this weekend and loads of Olympics to watch.

I can tell you that when Latvia nearly went up 2-1 against the USA in Mens hockey yesterday the billet was on the verge of exploding… It was getting tense 😬 

Have a great weekend all! Go Canada, go!

-Lee

Nostalgia - The feeling you get when your youth says hello.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 148 When a Tweet Tries to Ground an Industry https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-148 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-148 Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:00:22 +0000 2026-02-10T17:00:22Z

THE DISPATCH

Note from Lee:

I’ve been heads-down the last few weeks reworking MiningandEnergy.ca to make it a lot more useful for the people who actually keep this sector running: you and your teams. The biggest change you’ll notice is that jobs are now front and centre, not hidden in a menu, not an afterthought, but treated as the main event.

There is a massive shift underway in Canada’s mining and energy landscape. Between critical minerals, LNG, and the rebuild of our industrial base, jobs in our sectors are about to lead the next chapter of the Canadian economy. That deserves a platform that treats hiring like the strategic priority it is, not a classified ad in the footer.

So here’s what I’m doing: for Dispatch readers, I’m running job postings at $50 for 40 days (regular price is $199). If you’ve got a role you’d like to test on the new site, a geologist, millwright, automation tech, VP projects, you name it, this is your chance to get it in front of a very targeted audience without needing a big HR budget.

The site reaches a large, sector-specific readership that lives and breathes mining and energy. Give it a go, see how it performs, and if you have ideas on how to make the jobs piece even more valuable, I’m all ears.

Part 6 of a 10 part series on the global reshaping.

The rise of the Medium Countries.

On January 29, U.S. President Donald Trump opened his phone, opened Truth Social, and pointed it straight at one of Canada’s most sophisticated export machines. In a few lines of rage‑typed text, he threatened to “decertify all aircraft made in Canada” and slap a 50 per cent tariff on any Canadian plane sold into the U.S. until Ottawa certifies a suite of rival Gulfstream business jets.

This isn’t just another tariff threat. It’s a line‑crossing moment where safety certification, the technocratic plumbing that keeps global aviation running, gets dragged into a trade war. And for a medium country that lives on high‑value exports like aircraft, it’s a harsh reminder: if you depend on a hegemon’s regulator to say your products are safe, the hegemon has leverage every time a tweetstorm rolls in.​

What Trump Actually Threatened

Let’s start with the substance. In his post, Trump accused Canada of “wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly” refusing to certify Gulfstream’s new G500, G600, G700 and G800 business jets, framing it as a protectionist move that blocks U.S. planes from the Canadian market. As retaliation, he vowed to:

  • “Decertify” Bombardier’s Global Express business jets, and

  • “Decertify all aircraft made in Canada”,

  • While imposing a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian aircraft sold into the United States.

He even hinted that if Canada moved ahead with a trade deal with China, he’d consider 100 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods, turning aircraft into the spear‑tip of a much larger commercial threat.​

Within 24 hours, White House officials and regulators were scrambling to put guardrails around the damage. The Federal Aviation Administration quietly let it be known that Trump cannot unilaterally decertify aircraft already in service; at most, the administration could interfere with future certifications, new deliveries, or modifications. That’s still a serious problem, but it’s not “ground every Canadian plane overnight.”

Bombardier’s Exposure – And Everyone Else’s

If you’re looking for the main target, it’s Bombardier. The company’s large‑cabin Global Express and Global 7500 jets are exactly the kind of aircraft Trump sees when he looks at Gulfstream’s order book. Roughly two‑thirds of Bombardier’s revenue comes from U.S. customers, making the United States by far its largest and most strategically important market.

A 50 per cent tariff on new Canadian‑built business jets landing in the U.S. would:

  • Blow up price competitiveness in Bombardier’s largest market.

  • Freeze some buyers on the sidelines until the dispute clears.

  • Complicate financing and residual‑value assumptions for lessors and banks.

And it doesn’t stop at Bombardier. Airbus builds the A220 in Mirabel, De Havilland Canada manufactures Dash 8s and Twin Otters, and multiple U.S. and European primes use Canadian workshare for components and completions. Any broad‑brush tariff on “aircraft made in Canada” hits that whole ecosystem.

The irony is that U.S. defence and intelligence programs also depend on Canadian‑built airframes. The U.S. Army operates Global 6000 derivatives as electronic‑warfare and surveillance platforms under programs like Ares and Hades; any serious move to decertify those airframes would collide with Washington’s own national‑security needs. That contradiction is part of why this threat is more dangerous as a precedent than as a policy that’s likely to stick.​

Turning Certification into a Weapon

Aviation certification has always sat in a different bucket from tariffs. It’s supposed to be about safety, not leverage. Canada and the U.S. have a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) that lets Transport Canada streamline validation of FAA‑approved products and vice versa, built on the premise that regulators don’t play politics with airworthiness.​

By tying Gulfstream’s approvals to Bombardier’s access to the U.S. market, Trump is trying to merge two worlds:

  • Safety validation, where engineers and test pilots assess whether a design can fly.

  • Trade retaliation, where politicians and lawyers fight over market access.

If that merger succeeds, even once, every future certification dispute anywhere in the world inherits the same logic:

  • Approve my jets or I’ll ground yours.

  • Certify my drones or I’ll block your helicopters.

For a medium country like Canada, that’s a structural risk. The whole business model is: build complex, high‑trust products, aircraft, satellites, turbines, AI systems, and sell them everywhere. That requires predictable, apolitical regulators in your main export markets. When that predictability erodes, the cost of doing business goes up and the market shrinks.

The Medium‑Country Playbook When the Hegemon Loses the Plot

So what does medium‑country strategy look like when the hegemon starts using airworthiness certificates as a cudgel? A few moves stand out.

1. Double down on rules and alliances, not tweets
Canada can’t out‑tweet a U.S. president, but it can:

  • Lean on the BASA framework and ICAO norms to argue that certification must remain technical, not political.

  • Pull in Europe and other major regulators who also depend on reciprocal certification to keep global aviation functioning.

If you’re a medium country, your power isn’t in shock tactics; it’s in reminding everyone that the system only works if the rules outlast whoever’s angry this week.

2. Use your own leverage
Trump’s threat rests on the assumption that Canada needs U.S. buyers more than the U.S. needs Canadian production. That’s only partly true.

  • U.S. military and intelligence platforms based on Canadian airframes give Ottawa a quiet bargaining chip.​

  • Canada can also lean on other files, energy exports, critical‑mineral supply, joint defence programs, when it calibrates its response.

Medium‑country strategy is about linkage: if one channel is weaponized (aircraft), you remind your partner how many other channels they care about.

3. Hedge your markets, even in aerospace
Trump already hit Bombardier once with near‑300 per cent tariffs on the C Series; Airbus took over and turned it into the A220, protected under a European umbrella. That’s medium‑country hedging in action: share the platform, spread the political risk.

Aerospace is harder to diversify than potash or LNG, but the principle still applies. More aircraft programs with:

  • Non‑U.S. partners in Europe and Asia.

  • Non‑U.S. customers in the Gulf, India, and medium countries that value Canadian tech.

The more diversified your customer base, the less any one hegemon can threaten to “decertify” your future.

Why This Matters Beyond Planes

For Mining & Energy readers, an aerospace food fight might feel distant. It shouldn’t. The underlying question is the same one running through this entire series:

What happens when the systems you rely on, for trade, finance, regulation, certification, stop being neutral infrastructure and start being weapons?

  • If aircraft certification is on the table today, could pipeline approvals, port access, or grid interconnections be there tomorrow?

  • If one tweet can threaten to ground an entire industry, what does that say about the stability of long‑life investments in mines, LNG plants, or transmission lines that depend on cross‑border rules staying boring and predictable?

Medium countries don’t get to control the hegemons. But they do get to decide how vulnerable they want to be the next time a leader wakes up angry at a business jet. That’s the strategic thread that runs from Bombardier’s hangars in Montreal to nickel deposits in northern Ontario and LNG terminals on the West Coast.

The good news is that the rest of this series, Korea, Europe, the Gulf, India, is essentially the answer key. Every new bridge Canada builds with another medium power is one more way to make sure a single regulator, in a single capital, can’t flip a switch and turn off our future.

Next Edition: When the Lights Flicker – Power Grids, Blackouts, and the New Politics of Keeping the Energy Flowing

In the next chapter of this series, we’ll move from the skies to the wires and look at what happens when power grids become the next frontline of economic coercion and infrastructure failure. We’ll dig into rolling blackouts in major mining jurisdictions, the scramble for firm power in an era of electrification, and how medium countries are redesigning grid, storage, and generation strategies so that a single downed intertie or political spat doesn’t shut in billions of dollars of production.

// THE DIRT

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. "Reading war news aboard streetcar. San Francisco, California" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/1f015110-fbed-0131-8e92-58d385a7bbd0

FEATURED RELEASE

Do you have a release you want to make sure is covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

FEATURED STORY

Have a story or update you want covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

I’ve been spending the last few days watching something unfold that feels almost unthinkable in 2026: a country running out of jet fuel. Cuba has told airlines it has no Jet A‑1 available at any of its nine international airports from February 10 to March 11, which means planes can land but they can’t refuel. Air Canada, WestJet, Air Transat and Sunwing have all suspended flights, and more than 400 weekly flights across carriers are facing cancellations or diversions.

On paper it’s an aviation story, NOTAMs, diversions, tech stops in Santo Domingo. In reality, it’s a reminder of how fast things break when energy security and geopolitics collide. Cuba has been leaning on Venezuelan oil; Trump’s move to cut off those supplies as part of his broader sanctions push has left the island without the fuel that literally keeps it connected to the world. Tourism evaporates, hard currency dries up, and suddenly a fuel supply chain that was invisible to most travelers becomes the most important piece on the board.

From where we sit in Canada, with our pipelines, refineries and export terminals, it’s tempting to treat this as a distant crisis in a tropical destination. I’m not so sure we should. If nothing else, Cuba’s month without jet fuel is a case study in what happens when critical infrastructure depends on a single political relationship, and what it looks like when that relationship turns off the tap.

-Lee

Nostalgia - The feeling you get when your youth says hello.

]]> The M&E DISPATCH // 147 These maps of shipping lanes sure are old... seems like we've been trading here for a while. https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-147 https://dispatch.miningandenergy.ca/p/the-m-e-dispatch-147 Fri, 06 Feb 2026 17:00:27 +0000 2026-02-06T17:00:27Z

THE DISPATCH

Note from Lee:

I’ve been heads-down the last few weeks reworking MiningandEnergy.ca to make it a lot more useful for the people who actually keep this sector running: you and your teams. The biggest change you’ll notice is that jobs are now front and centre, not hidden in a menu, not an afterthought, but treated as the main event.

There is a massive shift underway in Canada’s mining and energy landscape. Between critical minerals, LNG, and the rebuild of our industrial base, jobs in our sectors are about to lead the next chapter of the Canadian economy. That deserves a platform that treats hiring like the strategic priority it is, not a classified ad in the footer.

So here’s what I’m doing: for Dispatch readers, I’m running job postings at $50 for 40 days (regular price is $199). If you’ve got a role you’d like to test on the new site, a geologist, millwright, automation tech, VP projects, you name it, this is your chance to get it in front of a very targeted audience without needing a big HR budget.

The site reaches a large, sector-specific readership that lives and breathes mining and energy. Give it a go, see how it performs, and if you have ideas on how to make the jobs piece even more valuable, I’m all ears.

Part 5 of a 10 part series on the global reshaping.

The rise of the Medium Countries.

Two years ago, Canada–India relations were stuck in the deep freeze. Today, ministers are trading handshakes in Goa and New Delhi, planning a Canada–India Critical Minerals Annual Dialogue at PDAC 2026, and describing each other as “natural allies” in energy and mineral security. The diplomatic reset isn’t about nostalgia or diaspora politics. It’s about something much more concrete: India needs minerals and molecules; Canada has minerals and molecules; both are tired of living at the mercy of U.S. tariffs and Chinese coercion.

In this edition of the Medium Countries series, we follow the newest bridge: an emerging India Corridor built on critical minerals, LNG, nuclear fuel, and clean energy technology. If the Korea edition was about submarines and steel, and the Europe edition was about defence and batteries, this one is about a single bet: that Canada and India can turn their complementarities into a non‑aligned supply chain that matters.

The Diplomatic Reset: From Rift to Roadmap

The turning point came at the G7 Summit in June 2025, hosted by Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the sidelines to thaw a nearly two‑year diplomatic chill and agreed to restart work on trade, technology, and resource security. India endorsed Canada’s G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan, signalling that New Delhi was ready to treat Canadian minerals as a strategic hedge against over‑reliance on China.

Since then, the calendar has filled up:

  • October 2025 – Foreign Minister Anita Anand visits India to advance clean and secure energy co‑operation and map how Canadian reserves and mining know‑how can meet India’s energy security needs.

  • November 2025 – Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu co‑chairs the 7th Ministerial Dialogue on Trade and Investment in New Delhi; both sides agree to long‑term partnerships in critical minerals and clean energy, plus expanded collaboration in aerospace and dual‑use tech.

  • November 2025 – A Track 1.5 dialogue in New Delhi calls for a “market‑plus” partnership: Canadian upstream production and technology paired with Indian processing, refining and manufacturing capacity.

  • January 2026 – Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson attends India Energy Week and relaunches the Canada–India Ministerial Energy Dialogue (CIMED), branding energy and critical minerals as the “cornerstone” of renewed trade ties.

You don’t stage that much choreography for a photo op. You do it when both sides decide that economic security depends on what they can build together.

India’s Demand Shock Meets Canada’s Supply

India is planning for 500 GW of clean energy, millions of EVs and two‑wheelers, and one of the fastest‑growing aviation markets on Earth. That roadmap runs on a very specific basket of materials:

  • Lithium for batteries.

  • Nickel and cobalt for advanced chemistries.

  • Copper for grids and motors.

  • Uranium for nuclear baseload.

India’s 2024 and 2025 budgets cut import duties on roughly 40 critical minerals and launched a National Critical Mineral Mission with about C$2.6 billion in funding to support exploration, mining, processing and recycling through 2032. New Delhi knows it cannot meet demand from domestic mines alone.

Canada, meanwhile, has 31–34 critical minerals identified, over C$50 billion in annual mineral exports, and a reputation for ESG‑compliant mining that investors still treat as a premium. Ottawa’s own strategy is to double exports to non‑U.S. markets by 2035, and it needs big, fast‑growing partners to make the math work.

The fit is obvious:

  • India wants non‑Chinese, reliable inputs to power EVs, solar, storage, data centres and defence‑adjacent tech.

  • Canada wants large, long‑term buyers who can anchor offtake agreements and justify investments in new mines and midstream processing.

Building the Corridor: Minerals, LNG, and Nuclear

So what does the India Corridor actually look like in practice? Three pillars stand out.

1. Critical minerals supply chains
Policy reports and joint statements now talk explicitly about a Canada–India value chain that runs from Canadian exploration and mining through to Indian refining and manufacturing. The design is “market‑plus”:

  • Canada focuses on upstream extraction and early‑stage processing, backed by the G7 Critical Minerals Production Alliance and western capital.

  • India scales midstream processing and manufacturing, battery components, solar modules, electronics, using Canadian feedstock but Indian labour, engineering and domestic demand.

Joint working groups, long‑term offtake contracts, and Indian investment in Canadian projects are all on the table as part of the roadmap pitched for PDAC 2026 and beyond.

2. Energy: LNG and clean power
Natural Resources Canada’s readout from India Energy Week was blunt: India is expected to post the largest growth in global energy demand through 2030, and Canada wants to be the supplier of choice. The CIMED Action Plan frames:

  • Conventional energy – including LNG and oil – as a bridge, with Canadian gas feeding Indian power and industrial demand.

  • Clean energy and hydrogen – where Canadian technology and Indian scale can combine on renewables, storage and grids.

For LNG exporters on Canada’s West Coast eyeing Asian buyers beyond China, India’s demand curve is less a “nice to have” than a potential anchor.

3. Uranium and nuclear collaboration
Both sides have flagged uranium supply and nuclear co‑operation as part of the conversation, tying Canadian fuel into India’s civil nuclear expansion. In a medium‑countries frame, that’s not just about electrons; it’s about anchoring India’s grid in a way that reduces pressure on coal and cuts vulnerability to external gas shocks.

Medium‑Country Playbook: Non‑Aligned, Not Neutral

What makes the India Corridor a classic medium‑countries story is the way both governments talk about economic coercion and supply‑chain weaponization, often with China in mind.

Canada has lived through U.S. steel tariffs and Chinese canola, pork, and canola‑seed bans. India has weathered Chinese border clashes and pressure campaigns, while managing a complex relationship with both Washington and Moscow.

The emerging Canada–India architecture reflects that experience:

  • It treats critical minerals as economic security, not just exports.

  • It uses trade and investment tools, FTAs, offtake, joint ventures, multilateral clubs like the Minerals Security Partnership and Indo‑Pacific Economic Framework, to reduce single‑point dependence.

  • It deliberately avoids copying China’s state‑directed model, instead aiming for a “market‑plus” partnership where private capital still allocates, but policy shapes the lanes.

This isn’t non‑alignment in the old, Cold War sense of standing apart from the blocs. It’s non‑alignment as multi‑alignment: work with whoever helps you build resilient supply chains, on terms you can live with, and never become essential to just one hegemon’s plans.

Why It Matters for Canadian Mining & Energy

For Mining & Energy readers, the India Corridor means three concrete things:

  1. New offtake paths – Lithium in Quebec, nickel and cobalt in Ontario and Manitoba, copper and uranium in the West now have a plausible demand thesis that runs through Gujarat and Maharashtra as much as it does through Shanghai or Berlin.

  2. Indian capital and partners – As FTA talks revive and institutional mechanisms solidify, Indian firms are being encouraged to invest directly in Canadian projects, not just sign purchase agreements. That could mean joint ventures in mining, processing, or even downstream manufacturing in Canada.

  3. A bigger say in the rules – By locking in this corridor through PDAC dialogues, working groups, and multilateral platforms, Canada and India gain leverage in setting standards on traceability, ESG, and circularity that others will have to follow.

In a world where supply chains double as weapons, that kind of agenda‑setting is its own form of defence.

Next Edition: When a Tweet Tries to Ground an Industry – Trump, “Decertified” Canadian Aircraft, and What Happens When Safety Becomes a Trade Weapon

In the next chapter of this series, we’ll go back to North America and unpack President Trump’s latest move: a Truth Social blast threatening to “decertify” all Canadian‑made aircraft, and to slap a 50 per cent tariff on anything with a maple leaf on the tail. We’ll look at what he can and can’t actually do, how exposed Canada’s aerospace cluster is, and how medium‑country strategy applies when the hegemon decides your planes can’t fly.

// THE DIRT

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. "Reading war news aboard streetcar. San Francisco, California" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/1f015110-fbed-0131-8e92-58d385a7bbd0

FEATURED RELEASE

Do you have a release you want to make sure is covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

FEATURED STORY

Have a story or update you want covered? Here’s the spot for it.

Hit reply and I’ll fill you in.

A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

Still cold. Nothing further to report.
- Sir Ernest Shackleton (Probably)

-Lee

Nostalgia - The feeling you get when your youth says hello.

]]>