Teck's zinc and lead smelting and refining complex, left, in Trail, B.C., in 2012.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Ottawa is investing up to $400-million into Teck Resources Ltd.’s TECK-B-T Trail smelter in British Columbia and gearing up to stockpile strategic metals as part of its multibillion-dollar drive to bolster North American supplies and potentially give the country leverage in its trade negotiations with the United States.
The investment, first reported by The Globe and Mail on Monday, is the inaugural one from the $2-billion Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund launched last year and since renamed the Canada Critical Minerals Accelerator (CCMA).
The investment comes through the $15-billion Canada Growth Fund via an “equity-like” structure. While the exact financial terms were not disclosed, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson told reporters at the announcement in Trail, B.C., on Tuesday that it will be structured like a royalty to earn a return based on a cut of the profit margins from the metal sales.
Ottawa said the Canada Growth Fund investment could double Trail’s existing production of germanium and antimony and potentially add new gallium production.
The government also said it will enter negotiations on an offtake agreement with Teck which would give it the right to purchase a portion of the future germanium, antimony and potentially gallium produced at Trail.
Canada Growth Fund invests $25-million in Ontario rare earths recycling company
In an interview with The Globe, Mr. Hodgson said both the investment into Trail and the offtake agreement are meant to give companies like Teck the confidence to deliver on critical minerals projects that otherwise might not be developed.
“So a company like Teck might otherwise say, ‘Hey, why would I put money into this when I know somebody might try and flood the market and drive the price down,’” he said referring to China’s practice of price manipulation in some strategic metals.
“They’ll now say, ‘Oh, I’ve got a customer who’s telling me they’ll stand there and they’ll buy this because they need it for stockpiling purposes. So I’m now prepared to put my own capital to work.’”
The offtake agreement will see the government stockpile specialty metals from Trail. Mr. Hodgson said Ottawa will hold on to them for national security reasons but also potentially as a strategic source for other G7 allies.
Gallium is used in semiconductors, and radar systems. Antimony’s applications include flame retardants, and high-efficiency batteries. Germanium is used in fibre optics for telecom cables, semiconductors, and in military applications such as infrared optical vision.
The Trail facility, which employs more than 1,400 people, has been in continuous operation for 130 years. Strategically located close to the Washington border, it was built by American businessman Frederick Augustus Heinze to smelt copper and gold from mines in nearby Rossland. Trail’s other owners have included Canadian Pacific Railway and Cominco Ltd. Teck took over the operation in 2001 when it acquired Cominco.
Editorial Board: Ottawa shouldn’t stake a direct claim on critical minerals
Well before the deployment of its first investment under CCMA, Ottawa had been ramping up the amount and frequency of its investments into the critical minerals sector. CGF, the $15-billion arm’s-length fund established in 2022, has so far invested $1-billion into the Canadian mining sector.
The Carney government has argued the infusions are necessary to help Canada diversify away from the U.S. and counter Chinese dominance in critical minerals.
Mr. Hodgson said that investments are also giving the country important leverage as it continues to duke it out with U.S. President Donald Trump to try to both renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and end the trade war.
“We all watched President Zelensky get lectured about how he had no cards and how what he should do is sign away his critical mineral supplies,” said Mr. Hodgson referring to a notorious interaction between Mr. Trump and the Ukrainian president last year at the White House. “We’re never going to let ourselves be in that position.”
China in 2024 banned exports of both germanium and antimony to the U.S., citing national security concerns. While China in late 2025 temporarily suspended the U.S. export ban, anxiety over security of supply persists. The U.S. has no domestic production of germanium.
There already have been several large public-sector mining investments by Ottawa this year, including a $500-million investment just last week for an expansion of the Red Chris gold and copper mine in British Columbia.
Export Development Canada and Canada Infrastructure Bank earlier in the year invested $459-million into Nouveau Monde Graphite to advance the Quebec company’s mine in that province.
And a few weeks ago, CIB invested $200-million in debt into Generation Mining Ltd. That was in addition to a $424-million debt financing that EDC participated in alongside ING Capital LLC, and Société Générale SA
In all of these cases, taxpayer-funded financings are accounting for a major component of the capital needed for projects to go ahead. A few years ago, such financings would have been typically shouldered exclusively by the private sector.