Land and environmental defenders at risk as Canada, the US and UK pursue critical minerals for weapons
In this joint policy briefing released today, May 15, 2025, seventeen organizations, including Peace Brigades International, warn that the UK government’s drive to secure minerals like cobalt, nickel and lithium could “fuel environmental destruction, human rights abuses and deepen global inequalities.”
Their briefing cautions: “The mining and processing of critical minerals is frequently linked to severe human rights violations including violation of Indigenous rights including the killing of land and environmental defenders.”
Mining is deadly for environmental defenders
In September 2024, Global Witness senior adviser Laura Furones also highlighted: “It’s very difficult to establish direct links between the murder of a defender and a specific corporate sector. However, what we have been able to identify for 2023 is that mining came up as the largest corporate sector linked to defenders. And this is also true for our historical data. Mining sector is number one over the last 12 years.”
The UK “almost wholly dependent on imports”
The British Geological Survey (BGS) has noted: “The UK Critical Minerals List, published in 2021, includes the following: antimony, bismuth, cobalt, gallium, graphite, indium, lithium, magnesium, niobium, palladium, platinum group metals, rare earth elements, silicon, tantalum, tellurium, tin, tungsten and vanadium.”
The BGS then highlight: “The UK and the EU [European Union] are almost wholly dependent on imports of these materials.”
Canada-UK trade talks
Peace Brigades International, the Trade Justice Movement, Global Justice Now, Corporate Justice Coalition and Friends of the Earth say: “A major barrier to corporate accountability is the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system, which is included in more than 80 UK trade and investment agreements.”
The UK-Canada Trade Continuity Agreement (TCA), that came into force in April 2021, includes an investment protection dispute resolution section.
In June 2023, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives commented: “If Canada and the U.K. are determined to allow for ISDS [in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership], Canada should restrict its use to the proposed bilateral Canada-U.K. free trade agreement still under negotiation.”
In March 2022, talks began on a new Canada-United Kingdom free trade agreement (CUKFTA) that stalled in January 2024. Just three days ago, CTV News reported: “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke on Monday [May 12] and agreed to strengthen trade, commercial, and defence ties, according to a statement from the Canadian prime minister’s office.”
The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) also recently announced that Lord George Robertson would be speaking at the CANSEC weapons fair that is taking place on May 28-29 in Ottawa. Starmer appointed Robertson in July 2024 to lead a UK defence policy review due in the first half of 2025.
The US is also pushing for critical minerals
In March 2025, CBC News reported: “The Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario has become a key figure in the battle to control critical minerals, which experts say is the heart of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada.”
The Government of Ontario has highlighted: “The region has long-term potential to produce chromite, cobalt, nickel, copper and platinum.”
These critical minerals have multiple military applications.
Chromite can be used for aircraft engines, cobalt for munitions, high-temperature aerospace alloys, high-capacity batteries, nickel for armour plating in tanks and anti-aircraft firearms, batteries for propulsion and storage, copper for wiring, guidance systems, ammunition and naval vessels, and platinum is used in the production of missiles, jet engines, and a vast array of military electronics.
CBC journalist Alexander Panetta has also speculated that “a new economic and security arrangement with the United States” to now to be negotiated by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government and the Trump administration could include “ramped-up talk about developing Canada’s critical minerals”.
Along with chromite, cobalt, nickel, copper and platinum, critical minerals commonly needed for military production include antimony, arsenic, bismuth, gallium, germanium, indium, natural graphite, tantalum and tungsten.
Many critical minerals can be found across Canada.
The US military says it needs critical minerals
In January 2025, US Department of Defense (DOD) News noted: “Secure sourcing of critical minerals is critical to the defense industrial base, which uses them to produce virtually every Defense Department system, from unmanned aerial systems and fighter jets to submarines, said Adam Burstein [technical director for strategic and critical materials in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy].”
That article adds: “Earlier this year, Congress added the United Kingdom and Australia as domestic sources, in addition to Canada, for purposes of the Defense Production Act [DPA]. …Last year, the U.S. issued multiple DPA awards to projects based in Canada, which also received joint funding from the Canadian government. These projects are targeted to increase the secure supply of key materials, including cobalt, graphite and tungsten, [Burstein] said.”
Royal Bank of Canada says critical minerals needed for “military operations”
In April 2025, RBC Wealth Management also stated: “A typical artillery tank requires over 20 different critical minerals across navigation, communications, and combat systems… Batteries and semiconductors are also increasingly important to military operations, along with more traditional needs to strengthen artillery, naval and aerospace (antimony, beryllium, titanium, among others).”
Critical minerals and “border security”
RBC also notes: “[With] border security; tungsten is used in automobile x-rays and germanium within thermal imaging and night vision goggles.”
Rare earth minerals needed for F-35s
Rare earth elements are a subset of critical minerals.
Mining.com has noted: “Each F-35 Lightning II aircraft … requires approximately 920 pounds of rare-earth materials, according to a 2013 report from the U.S. Congressional Research Service. …Other uses are for Stryker armored fighting vehicles, Predator drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles.”
Rare earth elements include scandium, praseodymium, yttrium, samarium, lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, europium, terbium, dysprosium, erbium and lutetium.
Multiple critical minerals are also needed for the production of F-35s.
Image from UWA Defence & Security.
NATO identifies critical minerals
In December 2024, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) published a list of 12 defence-critical raw materials essential for military production.
NATO highlights: “Aluminum, for example, is pivotal in producing lightweight yet robust military aircraft and missiles, enhancing their agility and performance. Graphite is crucial for the production of main battle tanks and corvettes due to its high strength and thermal stability. In submarines, graphite is used in the construction of hulls and other structural components, significantly reducing acoustic signatures and enhancing stealth capabilities. Cobalt is another critical material, essential for producing superalloys used in jet engines, missiles, and submarines, which can withstand extreme temperatures and stress.”
As the Secretary General of NATO from 1999-2003, CANSEC speaker Lord George Robertson would presumably be aware of these needs.
Shut Down CANSEC, May 28
PBI-Canada will be observing the Shut Down CANSEC mobilization this coming Wednesday May 28 starting at 7 am at the EY Centre in Ottawa.
CADSI, the national voice of weapons companies in Canada, highlights that CANSEC brings together “280+ defence, security & emerging tech exhibitors”, “50+ local and national media”, “37+ MPs, Senators and Cabinet Ministers” and “50+ International delegations”.
We are observant of the connections between weapons production and exports, their use in genocide and the repression of popular movements, as well as the mining required for military production and the impacts that extractivism can have particularly on Indigenous land and environmental defenders.
For updates and reports on May 28, the day of the Shut Down CANSEC mobilization, go to PBI-Canada on Bluesky, Instagram, X and Facebook.
Image from Shut Down CANSEC.
0 Comments