Canada and Greenland signed a non-binding Joint Declaration of Intent on March 2, 2026, to strengthen cooperation on critical minerals and energy, announced by Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson at the 2026 Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada Convention in Toronto. The agreement aims to promote "North-North connections" between Canada's Department of Natural Resources and Greenland's Ministry of Business, Mineral Resources, Energy, Justice and Gender Equality in areas including critical minerals, energy and landscape change. The move comes as Canada announced $12.1 billion in new critical minerals partnerships with 12 allied nations and builds on Canada's recently opened consulate in Nuuk, Greenland's capital.

The timing matters because Canada faces real obstacles in turning its geological wealth into actual production. As China has expanded restrictions on rare earth element exports—minerals essential for electronics and electric vehicles—Canada has a unique opportunity to strengthen its position as a reliable producer, but must adopt a more predictable and competitive policy environment to attract mining investment, according to recent analysis from the Fraser Institute. China controls nearly 70 percent of global rare earth element production, estimated at around 245,000 tonnes in 2024. Global demand for rare earth elements and other critical minerals is expected to double by 2040, creating pressure to find alternative suppliers. Canada's geology isn't the problem—the country has massive deposits. The challenge is getting them out of the ground fast enough.

Here's where policy uncertainty becomes the bottleneck. Yukon, which holds some of North America's richest rare earth element deposits including yttrium, neodymium, and dysprosium, ranks as the 8th most attractive jurisdiction globally for mineral endowment but falls to 40th out of 82 jurisdictions for policy environment. In a survey of mining investors, 76 percent cited uncertainty over protected areas as a deterrent, 74 percent pointed to uncertainty over environmental regulations, and 69 percent said uncertainty over disputed land claims deters investment in Yukon. That's three-quarters of investors saying "we don't know what the rules are." The Canada-Greenland agreement includes provisions for sharing best practices on environmental, social and governance standards, policies and regulations, and encouraging commercial partnerships between Canadian and Greenlandic companies, but the declaration creates no legal obligations and includes no funding commitments.

The Canada-Greenland pact signals strategic positioning in a world where mineral supply chains have become geopolitical weapons. But positioning isn't production. Canada has the potential to position itself as a reliable global supplier of rare earth elements and contribute to international security, but geological abundance alone is not enough—policymakers must establish a competitive and predictable framework that attracts investment. The real test won't be signing declarations at mining conferences. It'll be whether investors see clear enough rules to risk billions on decade-long mining projects. Right now, Canada's got the rocks. Whether it can mine them faster than China can tighten export controls is the question that matters.