Australia and Canada have formalised a joint declaration of intent to deepen cooperation in critical-minerals value chains, marking a significant step in their bilateral partnership.

The agreement was signed by Australia’s Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Madeleine King, and Canada’s Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson, on the sidelines of the Group of Seven energy and environment ministers’ meeting in Toronto.

The declaration sets out a comprehensive agenda for collaboration: enhancing trade and commercial partnerships in critical minerals and rare earths, advancing joint research initiatives, and addressing policy-challenges confronting producer nations.

Both countries emphasise the need to build supply chains that are secure, diversified and sustainable — with a clear recognition that critical minerals are essential to both economic growth and national security.

Minister King observed that Australia and Canada “hold some of the world’s most significant critical-minerals and rare-earths reserves” and stressed the importance of ensuring that industry and communities in both nations benefit from rising global demand.

She said the partnership will focus on resilient supply-chains to support innovation and economic growth.

For Canada, the agreement arrives as Ottawa is mobilising a broader push to accelerate more than C$6.4 billion (around US$4.6 billion) of critical-minerals projects, and to lead the new G7-level “Critical Minerals Production Alliance” aimed at reducing reliance on dominant suppliers.

The bilateral pact follows Australia’s recent agreement with the United States to secure critical-minerals and rare-earth processing, underscoring a broader shift by leading economies toward strengthening supply-chain independence from any single dominant supplier.

Both Australian and Canadian governments highlighted the importance of emerging standards-based markets for responsibly sourced critical minerals and rare earths, leveraging their high environmental, social and governance credentials.

Among the objectives spelled out in the declaration are ministerial-level meetings, deployment of special envoys, coordinated commercial missions, and joint research and development efforts.

The accord envisions cooperative work on processing, recycling and value-adding of critical minerals, not just extraction.

By aligning trade, investment and policy frameworks, Australia and Canada aim to provide global markets with trusted alternative supply-chains for minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, scandium and rare-earth elements.

It reflects a strategic posture by both countries as premium producers committed to supporting the global transition to clean technologies, advanced manufacturing and defence-capable supply infrastructure.