Frenzied Pace Set to Plunder Quebec's Natural and Human Resources for U.S. War Machine
Recent articles in the Journal de Montréal highlight Canada and Quebec's heavy dependence on the United States (75 per cent of exports), particularly for strategic resources. They shed light on the scale of the rush for critical minerals in Quebec, the increased investments coming directly or indirectly from the U.S. government and armed forces, and the role of the governments of Canada and Quebec in facilitating and encouraging this plundering of Quebec's natural resources. Here are some excerpts.
[...]
The president of the Order of Geologists of Quebec, Serge
Perreault,
notes that foreign mining companies have freely recruited the
top
experts in Quebec geology in recent years. Investments in
mineral
exploration have also skyrocketed during the same period,
reaching $1.2
billion in
2024, according to data from Revenu Québec. [...]
Wealthy people from the U.S., including billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, have heavily financed an exploration company that has acquired hundreds of square kilometres rich in promising critical minerals in northern Quebec. KoBold Metals hopes to find significant deposits of cobalt, nickel, and lithium there. "They have recruited the best specialists from our universities and research centres," notes geologist and UQAM [Université du Québec à Montréal] professor Michel Jébrak.
In the summer of 2022, KoBold chartered six Boeing 737s at great expense to carry out an intensive prospecting campaign in the Arctic tundra near Kangiqsujuaq. KoBold has also acquired exclusive mining rights over hundreds of square kilometres of territory in the James Bay region in order to search for lithium and copper. The presence of thorium and rare earth elements has also been detected in this area. [...] KoBold has already invested $31 million in work in Nunavik alone, according to Quebec's mining titles management registry (GESTIM). [...] This site is located on the edge of Pingualuit National Park, formerly known as the New Quebec Crater. [...]
Hundreds of thousands of hectares of Quebec territory belong to mining companies that are actively courting the U.S. defence sector -- or even the U.S. military itself -- to sell their projects. Our investigative bureau identified at least nine exploration companies active in Quebec that are members of the Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC), a group founded in 2024 that has an agreement with the U.S. government aimed at "accelerating the Department of War's access to technologies." Together, they hold exclusive rights to explore subsurface resources across more than 500,000 hectares of Quebec land, an area almost equivalent to that of Prince Edward Island.
The largest owner, Li-FT Power, has acquired 230,000 hectares of mining claims rich in lithium in the James Bay region. In December, Li-FT Power announced a merger with the Australian mining company Winsome. At the end of February, the company also announced an agreement with the Quebec Mining Exploration Company (SOQUEM), a branch of Investissement Québec, and the company Exploration Azimut to purchase 75 per cent of the rights to 335 square kilometres of claims located in the same region.
Focus Graphite owns around 200 mining claims on the Côte-Nord, including a particularly pure graphite deposit located at Lac Knife near Fermont, where it has already invested $26 million in a mining project.
"Demand from the defence sector is becoming an increasingly explicit and formalized component of North American policies regarding critical minerals. In this context, the Lac Knife project is well positioned to contribute significantly," believes Focus Graphite vice-president Jason Latkowcer, who had just returned from New York to promote the project.
His company is sparing no effort south of the border. It is notably a member of the Military Power Sources Consortium, which connects companies with the U.S. military. Focus Graphite has also succeeded in establishing "targeted contacts" with the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of War. [...]
Most companies that are members of the Defense Industrial Base Consortium are still at the exploration stage. For the past 10 years, Commerce Resources Corp has been drilling the ground in Nunavik in search of niobium and rare earth elements. [...]
The ambitious Strange Lake rare earth project in northern Quebec was launched thanks to an investment from a controversial U.S. fund run by supporters of Donald Trump. Cerberus, which manages more than $70 billion in assets, was co-founded by Steve Feinberg, a pro-Trump billionaire who became Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of War last March. In 2023, one of its subsidiaries invested U.S.$50 million in Métaux Torngat, which is leading the Strange Lake project. The project includes an open-pit rare earth mine and a plant in Nunavik, a seasonal road in Labrador, and another plant in Sept-Îles. [...]
Under
its direction, Cerberus lobbyists met with senior officials in
the
Canadian government at least three times to discuss mining and
environmental issues. A few months later, Métaux Torngat
received a $10 million grant from the Critical Minerals
Infrastructure
Fund, in addition to $165 million
in financing from Export Development Canada and the Canada
Infrastructure Bank. The rare earth elements targeted by Métaux
Torngat are used in the manufacture of permanent magnets,
essential for
the ecological transition but also for the military-industrial
complex.
It should be noted that Cerberus has a long track record in the defence sector, holding interests in firms specializing in military aircraft maintenance, hypersonic defence systems, and the manufacturing of next-generation tanks. [...] Torngat is also a member of the Defense Industrial Base Consortium, which aims to facilitate exchanges between companies and the Department of War. [...]
To reduce their dependence on Chinese metals, the United States is also turning to Lanaudière. Last year, the U.S. government committed to providing U.S.$172 million to Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG), which plans to open a mine in Saint-Michel-des-Saints in 2029. These funds, from the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM), are intended to help the company make its mine fully operational and establish a plant in Bécancour to transform graphite into battery materials. [...]
The Nouveau Monde Graphite project, identified by the Carney government as being of "national interest," is benefiting from enormous funding promises. Alongside the U.S. federal agency EXIM, the Canadian government has committed to nearly $600 million, while other unidentified private investors will provide another $660 million. [...]
The Canadian government has also signed an agreement to purchase nearly 25 per cent of the production capacity of the Lanaudière mine -- about 30,000 tons of concentrated graphite per year. Half of this graphite will remain in Canada, while the other half is destined for "Canada's allies," meaning the countries of the G7 and NATO, including the United States. [...]
Montreal environmental day of action, September 27, 2024
opposes critical minerals' mining projects
(Excerpts translated from original French by TML.)
This article was published in
Volume 56 Number 23 - April 24, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/T560236.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca