Canada and Australia deepen cooperation on critical minerals: Key takeaways

On March 5, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese released a sweeping joint statement from Canberra covering investment, defence, energy, and artificial intelligence. Particularly for those in the mining sector, the central message was that cooperation on critical minerals between Canada and Australia has entered a new and more consequential phase.

Australia joins Critical Minerals Production Alliance

Australia has formally joined the Critical Minerals Production Alliance, an initiative launched under Canada's G7 presidency in 2025 to expand production and processing capacity and to diversify supply chains from mine to market. This development is strategically significant. Canada and Australia rank among the world's largest holders of critical mineral reserves and resources that are foundational to defence technologies, electric vehicle batteries, and the rapidly expanding global AI infrastructure.

Supply chain resilience and strategic reserves

The two leaders committed to enhanced collaboration on critical minerals investment frameworks and technical standards, including closer coordination between Australia's Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve and Canada's Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund. In addition, a work plan advancing the November 2025 Joint Declaration of Intent on Critical Minerals Cooperation is expected to be launched later this year. This plan will focus on project financing, joint technology development, and improving supply chain resilience.

Leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to sharing technical expertise related to mapping critical minerals deposits and improving extraction and processing capabilities, strengthening their respective domestic critical minerals sectors and enabling growth.

For project developers, processors, and off takers, this evolving bilateral architecture could open new financing pathways and reduce supply chain risk in an increasingly fragmented and geopolitically complex global market.

Addressing the labour bottleneck

Ambitious production targets cannot be realized without a skilled workforce. Recognizing this constraint, Canada and Australia announced the launch of a Mining Skills Exchange Pilot, developed in collaboration with industry participants, academic institutions, and government partners in both countries. The pilot will target skills shortages across priority areas such as critical minerals extraction, digital mining technologies, safety, and sustainability.

The broader investment context

Critical minerals cooperation is unfolding within a wider context of deepening economic ties. The visit also produced a memorandum of understanding aimed at strengthening investment collaboration between Canadian pension funds and Australian superannuation funds, while IFM Investors, a large Australian institutional investor, announced its intention to invest up to $10 billion in Canada. In parallel, the leaders agreed to launch negotiations to modernize the Canada-Australia Tax Treaty to facilitate increased two way investment.

Bilateral goods and services trade exceeded $12 billion in 2025, with Canadian direct investment in Australia approaching $59 billion and Australia direct investment in Canada reaching $27 billion. These new policy frameworks should further lower barriers and improve tax efficiency for capital flows across the Pacific.

Looking ahead

To maintain momentum, regular ministerial engagements across economic, industry, natural resources, and defence portfolios are planned. Resources ministers will meet annually to advance critical minerals cooperation specifically. For mining companies, investors, and supply chain participants, the expansion of the Canada-Australia corridor for critical minerals investment and the support expressed at the highest levels of both governments to sustain and further scale this partnership are encouraging signs of deepening cooperation and alignment between two important mining jurisdictions.