We are in the midst of a defining moment in history – facing a greater need for critical minerals than ever before, and a realization that building diversified and resilient critical minerals supply chains is fundamental to supporting growth, and economic and geopolitical stability.
At BMO Capital Markets, we are seeing firsthand how big that challenge is for our clients and a wide range of stakeholders.
Against this backdrop, it was a privilege for John Gale, Director, Global Metals and Mining Investment Banking, and I, to participate in the G7 Critical Minerals Investment Forum in Paris, hosted by the French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial, Energy and Digital Sovereignty ahead of the 2026 G7 Summit. We were the only Canadian bank in attendance.
The forum brought together senior leaders from across industry, financial institutions and public sector organizations to focus on a shared objective: mobilizing capital and accelerating development across the critical minerals value chain.
There was clear consensus among all the participants that critical raw materials are a strategic geopolitical priority and securing resilient supply chains is central to industrial sovereignty and the energy transition. The call to action was urgent.
Despite the urgency, several barriers continue to constrain progress, including long-term procurement in the face of rapid technological change, opaque pricing benchmarks, supply chain fragmentation, erosion of technical expertise, midstream bottlenecks and lengthy timelines to advance and finance crucial projects. These factors sum up the significant challenge faced by industry to demonstrate the project bankability required to access capital.
A consistent theme throughout the discussions was that capital availability is not the primary constraint. Significant pools of capital exist but unlocking them at scale, and for the right projects, will require partnership, collaboration and clearer pathways to bankable projects. A myriad of industry participants must contribute to achieve this, supported by government and multilateral agencies, and all sources of capital have a role to play.
Emerging from the forum, clear strategic priorities were called for:
Increasing focus on aligned mine-to-product platforms
Our focus must not only be on the highest profile opportunities; success depends on the full value chain including its smaller and earlier stage participants
Development of transparent Western pricing benchmarks
Coordinated G7 financing and risk-pooling initiatives to underpin public-private partnership
Strengthened incentives for procurement from Western-only supply chains
Deploy allied partnership and innovation as competitive strengths
Turning ambition into execution will take greater creativity, partnership and sustained public-private collaboration but there are many willing participants in the global industry eager to be part of the change.
BMO Capital Markets continues to play an important role through its leading Global Metals & Mining franchise, working with our clients in an advisory and financing capacity to advance critical minerals projects around the world, and have brought capital providers and corporate clients together, increasingly alongside Government and OEMs in recent years, at our Global Metals, Mining & Critical Minerals Conference for 35 years and counting.
Alongside our attendance, BMO was pleased to be represented as a signatory on the Statement on accelerating investment for critical minerals projects in G7 countries and like-minded partners that was formulated in connection with the forum, alongside 35 other key players seeking to address this challenge.
In addition to the statement, the World Economic Forum produced a report recently, with a forward from industry experts and our CEO Darryl White, tackling the issue of bankability in the critical minerals sector, with a close look at how to work through challenges affecting the sector.
We thank the organizers and participants for convening such an important and timely discussion.