Washington Is Financing Critical-Mineral Projects. What Will Canada Do?

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Wednesday, August 26, 2026

(Sponsored) For much of the past decade, capital has constrained critical-minerals development as much as geology. Deposits holding metals that Western governments consider strategic can be too large for junior equity markets, too early for conventional project finance or exposed to markets that remain small and opaque. The gap between identifying a mineral resource and financing a mine has stalled projects that governments say they need. Washington is increasingly using public capital to narrow that gap.

On August 7, the U.S. Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital announced a conditional commitment of up to US$400 million in long-term debt financing for Sunrise Energy Metals’ Syerston Scandium Project in New South Wales, Australia. The proposed facility would have a 25-year term, subject to financial close and other conditions. Sunrise’s feasibility study designs initial capacity of approximately 60 tonnes of high-purity scandium oxide a year. The Department said no primary mine-source scandium supply currently exists and foreign competitors account for approximately 80% of global mining production and nearly all processing.

Scandium has long faced an unusual commercial problem. Its applications in aerospace, defense and advanced manufacturing are significant, but the existing market is small enough to make financing new primary supply difficult. A government willing to provide long-duration capital changes that equation.

Doubleview Gold Corp. (TSX-Venture: DBG) (OTCQX: DBLVF) responded within days. On August 12, Doubleview submitted a strategic policy brief to Canadian federal and British Columbia leadership seeking infrastructure capital, streamlined permitting and integration into cross-border defense supply chains.

Doubleview reports that its 100%-owned Hat Project has a mineral resource estimate effective February 4, 2026, at a 0.2% copper-equivalent cut-off: 609 million tonnes in the measured and indicated categories grading 0.43% CuEq and containing 2.42 billion pounds of copper, 3.22 million ounces of gold and 80.1 million pounds of cobalt, plus 503 million tonnes inferred grading 0.41% CuEq. The estimate reports 2,415 tonnes of scandium oxide in the measured and indicated categories, calculated from the 12.5% of mineralized material expected to enter a dedicated scandium circuit under the current design and using a 72% recovery. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Doubleview’s March Preliminary Economic Assessment models life-of-mine average annual production under Scenario B of 128.4 tonnes of scandium oxide, 67,600 tonnes of copper, 217,300 ounces of gold and 2,500 tonnes of cobalt over 25 years. Those figures are PEA estimates, not current production. Syerston’s approximately 60-tonne annual figure is a feasibility-study design capacity; comparing the two figures does not establish relative technical feasibility, financing readiness or production timing.

The PEA is preliminary and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. At the study’s consensus metal prices, Scenario A2 reports an after-tax NPV at a 5% discount rate of C$6.727 billion and a 23% IRR; Scenario B, which includes the hydrometallurgical and scandium recovery circuits, reports C$7.274 billion and a 19% IRR.

Washington has already demonstrated several ways government capital can enter this equation.

NioCorp Developments Ltd. (NASDAQ: NB) continues to work through U.S. Export-Import Bank due diligence for its Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in Nebraska after applying in 2023 for up to US$800 million in potential debt financing. NioCorp’s August 10, 2026 feasibility-study release says the eventual amount of EXIM financing, if any, cannot currently be estimated. The study estimates a US$4.111 billion pre-tax NPV at an 8% discount rate and a 40-year mine life producing eight U.S.-designated critical-mineral products, including scandium trioxide. Completing the study satisfied one EXIM due-diligence requirement; no final financing commitment has been announced.

Lithium Americas Corp. (NYSE: LAC) illustrates a more advanced version. Its Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada is backed by a US$2.23 billion Department of Energy loan. Lithium Americas received the first US$435 million draw in October 2025 and reported cumulative advances of US$1.209 billion by June 2026. Revised terms gave the government warrants representing a 5% equity stake in Lithium Americas and a 5% economic interest in the Thacker Pass joint venture. Phase 1 is designed for nominal production capacity of 40,000 tonnes of battery-quality lithium carbonate a year.

Trilogy Metals Inc. (NYSE American: TMQ) shows another potential structure and the time these arrangements can take. The Vancouver-based company signed a binding letter of intent with the Department of War in October 2025 covering a proposed US$35.6 million strategic investment related to the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Alaska. If completed on the disclosed terms, the government would hold approximately 10% of Trilogy’s outstanding common shares. The target closing date was extended from May 31 to July 31; on August 3, Trilogy said discussions continued and the letter of intent remained in effect. The transaction has not closed.

Which brings the question back to Canada.

Doubleview describes the Hat Project as comprising more than 18,000 hectares in 19 mineral tenures in northwestern British Columbia, approximately 95 kilometres southwest of Dease Lake. The Company says the Northwest Transmission Line comes within 120 kilometres and provincial and federal governments have committed approximately C$195 million to regional road improvements. Doubleview completed 13,290 metres of drilling in 2025. Assays reported in June 2026 extended mineralization approximately 150 metres east of the existing resource envelope, but those holes were not included in the February 2026 mineral resource estimate or the March 2026 PEA and do not constitute an updated resource estimate. Doubleview is targeting an updated mineral resource estimate for early 2027 while planning work relevant to a potential pre-feasibility study.

Financing remains the unavoidable question. The PEA estimates initial capital costs of C$3.601 billion for Scenario A2 and C$3.828 billion for Scenario B, which includes the hydrometallurgical and scandium recovery circuits. In June, Doubleview appointed Canaccord Genuity to conduct a formal strategic review focused primarily on a potential sale of the Company, while also considering other alternatives that include a sale of the Hat Project, a joint venture, strategic investment and participation by government-backed entities or sovereign wealth funds. Doubleview has set no timetable and has cautioned that the review may not result in a transaction.

The policy backdrop has changed. Washington is using long-term debt and warrants, and is considering equity investments, to support critical-mineral projects. Some commitments remain conditional, and several projects are controlled by companies headquartered outside the United States.

Doubleview’s August policy brief puts that policy question before Ottawa and British Columbia. Hat has a disclosed mineral resource, but it remains an exploration and development-stage project with no mineral reserve or demonstrated economic viability. The decision for governments is whether, and on what terms, public capital should support projects at this stage.

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