THE DISPATCH

Note from Lee:

I’ve been heads-down the last few weeks reworking MiningandEnergy.ca to make it a lot more useful for the people who actually keep this sector running: you and your teams. The biggest change you’ll notice is that jobs are now front and centre, not hidden in a menu, not an afterthought, but treated as the main event.

There is a massive shift underway in Canada’s mining and energy landscape. Between critical minerals, LNG, and the rebuild of our industrial base, jobs in our sectors are about to lead the next chapter of the Canadian economy. That deserves a platform that treats hiring like the strategic priority it is, not a classified ad in the footer.

So here’s what I’m doing: for Dispatch readers, I’m running job postings at $50 for 40 days (regular price is $199). If you’ve got a role you’d like to test on the new site, a geologist, millwright, automation tech, VP projects, you name it, this is your chance to get it in front of a very targeted audience without needing a big HR budget.

The site reaches a large, sector-specific readership that lives and breathes mining and energy. Give it a go, see how it performs, and if you have ideas on how to make the jobs piece even more valuable, I’m all ears.

Part 5 of a 10 part series on the global reshaping.

The rise of the Medium Countries.

Two years ago, Canada–India relations were stuck in the deep freeze. Today, ministers are trading handshakes in Goa and New Delhi, planning a Canada–India Critical Minerals Annual Dialogue at PDAC 2026, and describing each other as “natural allies” in energy and mineral security. The diplomatic reset isn’t about nostalgia or diaspora politics. It’s about something much more concrete: India needs minerals and molecules; Canada has minerals and molecules; both are tired of living at the mercy of U.S. tariffs and Chinese coercion.

In this edition of the Medium Countries series, we follow the newest bridge: an emerging India Corridor built on critical minerals, LNG, nuclear fuel, and clean energy technology. If the Korea edition was about submarines and steel, and the Europe edition was about defence and batteries, this one is about a single bet: that Canada and India can turn their complementarities into a non‑aligned supply chain that matters.

The Diplomatic Reset: From Rift to Roadmap

The turning point came at the G7 Summit in June 2025, hosted by Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the sidelines to thaw a nearly two‑year diplomatic chill and agreed to restart work on trade, technology, and resource security. India endorsed Canada’s G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan, signalling that New Delhi was ready to treat Canadian minerals as a strategic hedge against over‑reliance on China.

Since then, the calendar has filled up:

• October 2025 – Foreign Minister Anita Anand visits India to advance clean and secure energy co‑operation and map how Canadian reserves and mining know‑how can meet India’s energy security needs.

• November 2025 – Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu co‑chairs the 7th Ministerial Dialogue on Trade and Investment in New Delhi; both sides agree to long‑term partnerships in critical minerals and clean energy, plus expanded collaboration in aerospace and dual‑use tech.

• November 2025 – A Track 1.5 dialogue in New Delhi calls for a “market‑plus” partnership: Canadian upstream production and technology paired with Indian processing, refining and manufacturing capacity.

• January 2026 – Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson attends India Energy Week and relaunches the Canada–India Ministerial Energy Dialogue (CIMED), branding energy and critical minerals as the “cornerstone” of renewed trade ties.

You don’t stage that much choreography for a photo op. You do it when both sides decide that economic security depends on what they can build together.

India’s Demand Shock Meets Canada’s Supply

India is planning for 500 GW of clean energy, millions of EVs and two‑wheelers, and one of the fastest‑growing aviation markets on Earth. That roadmap runs on a very specific basket of materials:

• Lithium for batteries.

• Nickel and cobalt for advanced chemistries.

• Copper for grids and motors.

• Uranium for nuclear baseload.

India’s 2024 and 2025 budgets cut import duties on roughly 40 critical minerals and launched a National Critical Mineral Mission with about C$2.6 billion in funding to support exploration, mining, processing and recycling through 2032. New Delhi knows it cannot meet demand from domestic mines alone.

Canada, meanwhile, has 31–34 critical minerals identified, over C$50 billion in annual mineral exports, and a reputation for ESG‑compliant mining that investors still treat as a premium. Ottawa’s own strategy is to double exports to non‑U.S. markets by 2035, and it needs big, fast‑growing partners to make the math work.

The fit is obvious:

• India wants non‑Chinese, reliable inputs to power EVs, solar, storage, data centres and defence‑adjacent tech.

• Canada wants large, long‑term buyers who can anchor offtake agreements and justify investments in new mines and midstream processing.

Building the Corridor: Minerals, LNG, and Nuclear

So what does the India Corridor actually look like in practice? Three pillars stand out.

1. Critical minerals supply chains
Policy reports and joint statements now talk explicitly about a Canada–India value chain that runs from Canadian exploration and mining through to Indian refining and manufacturing. The design is “market‑plus”:

• Canada focuses on upstream extraction and early‑stage processing, backed by the G7 Critical Minerals Production Alliance and western capital.

• India scales midstream processing and manufacturing, battery components, solar modules, electronics, using Canadian feedstock but Indian labour, engineering and domestic demand.

Joint working groups, long‑term offtake contracts, and Indian investment in Canadian projects are all on the table as part of the roadmap pitched for PDAC 2026 and beyond.

2. Energy: LNG and clean power
Natural Resources Canada’s readout from India Energy Week was blunt: India is expected to post the largest growth in global energy demand through 2030, and Canada wants to be the supplier of choice. The CIMED Action Plan frames:

• Conventional energy – including LNG and oil – as a bridge, with Canadian gas feeding Indian power and industrial demand.

• Clean energy and hydrogen – where Canadian technology and Indian scale can combine on renewables, storage and grids.

For LNG exporters on Canada’s West Coast eyeing Asian buyers beyond China, India’s demand curve is less a “nice to have” than a potential anchor.

3. Uranium and nuclear collaboration
Both sides have flagged uranium supply and nuclear co‑operation as part of the conversation, tying Canadian fuel into India’s civil nuclear expansion. In a medium‑countries frame, that’s not just about electrons; it’s about anchoring India’s grid in a way that reduces pressure on coal and cuts vulnerability to external gas shocks.

Medium‑Country Playbook: Non‑Aligned, Not Neutral

What makes the India Corridor a classic medium‑countries story is the way both governments talk about economic coercion and supply‑chain weaponization, often with China in mind.

Canada has lived through U.S. steel tariffs and Chinese canola, pork, and canola‑seed bans. India has weathered Chinese border clashes and pressure campaigns, while managing a complex relationship with both Washington and Moscow.

The emerging Canada–India architecture reflects that experience:

• It treats critical minerals as economic security, not just exports.

• It uses trade and investment tools, FTAs, offtake, joint ventures, multilateral clubs like the Minerals Security Partnership and Indo‑Pacific Economic Framework, to reduce single‑point dependence.

• It deliberately avoids copying China’s state‑directed model, instead aiming for a “market‑plus” partnership where private capital still allocates, but policy shapes the lanes.

This isn’t non‑alignment in the old, Cold War sense of standing apart from the blocs. It’s non‑alignment as multi‑alignment: work with whoever helps you build resilient supply chains, on terms you can live with, and never become essential to just one hegemon’s plans.

Why It Matters for Canadian Mining & Energy

For Mining & Energy readers, the India Corridor means three concrete things:

1. New offtake paths – Lithium in Quebec, nickel and cobalt in Ontario and Manitoba, copper and uranium in the West now have a plausible demand thesis that runs through Gujarat and Maharashtra as much as it does through Shanghai or Berlin.

2. Indian capital and partners – As FTA talks revive and institutional mechanisms solidify, Indian firms are being encouraged to invest directly in Canadian projects, not just sign purchase agreements. That could mean joint ventures in mining, processing, or even downstream manufacturing in Canada.

3. A bigger say in the rules – By locking in this corridor through PDAC dialogues, working groups, and multilateral platforms, Canada and India gain leverage in setting standards on traceability, ESG, and circularity that others will have to follow.

In a world where supply chains double as weapons, that kind of agenda‑setting is its own form of defence.

Next Edition: When a Tweet Tries to Ground an Industry – Trump, “Decertified” Canadian Aircraft, and What Happens When Safety Becomes a Trade Weapon

In the next chapter of this series, we’ll go back to North America and unpack President Trump’s latest move: a Truth Social blast threatening to “decertify” all Canadian‑made aircraft, and to slap a 50 per cent tariff on anything with a maple leaf on the tail. We’ll look at what he can and can’t actually do, how exposed Canada’s aerospace cluster is, and how medium‑country strategy applies when the hegemon decides your planes can’t fly.

// THE DIRT

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A Closing Thought

NOTES FROM THE NORTH

Still cold. Nothing further to report.
- Sir Ernest Shackleton (Probably)

-Lee

Nostalgia - The feeling you get when your youth says hello.