The U.S. military has made its biggest move yet in a new national security effort to fund Canada’s mining projects.
The Pentagon on Tuesday $20 million in U.S. grants announced The cobalt refinery will be built in Temiskaming Shores in northern Ontario. The funding will go to Toronto-based Electra Battery Materials Inc. The Canadian government is also adding its own US$3.6 million (C$4.9 million) to the project.
It would be the third in a series of grants from Washington to Canadian projects and the largest to date, as part of an effort announced during U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2022 visit to Ottawa.
The effort is the first of its kind since World War II, when the United States desperately needed aluminum to power its military weapons and helped fund the expansion of Quebec’s aluminum industry.
The motivation is growing concern that the U.S. is too dependent on China for minerals needed to make a host of civilian and military products, from electric vehicle batteries to electronics to weapons systems. Washington has been scrambling to develop new sources of such products in case of a crisis, such as a disruption of trade with China amid tensions over Taiwan.
The first two grants announced by the United States earlier this year were for copper, gold, graphite and cobalt mining and processing projects in Quebec and the Northwest Territories; the combined value of those two grants was less than US$15 million.
In interviews, executives from companies that received the two grants said there were no strings attached to the grants, meaning they didn’t have to pay the money back or sell minerals to the U.S. military.
But in the event of war or other crisis, the U.S. military could become a potential customer. Gives Ottawa emergency powers to buy raw materials On behalf of our NATO allies.
