Why Trump Wants Canada’s Wealth of Critical Minerals

  • Country is rich in minerals essential to technology, military
  • Canada has been criticized for its slow extraction process

A worker takes a sample of molten nickel. Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, is rich in nickel, chromite and copper.

Photographer: Cole Burston/Bloomberg
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When Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a group of executives that President Donald Trump wasn’t kidding about annexing Canada, he offered one reason: critical minerals.

Canada is rich in nearly three dozen critical minerals essential to modern technology and produces more than 60 minerals and metals including nickel, potash, aluminum and uranium.