The funding, a $110-million bridge loan from Export Development Canada and a $55-million loan commitment from the Canada Infrastructure Bank, comes at a “critical juncture” for Torngat Metals as trade tensions with China warp the world’s rare earths supply chain. (The Logic)

Talking point: Although the U.S. and China reached a trade deal on rare earths, their recent dispute choked off access to China’s supply chain and forced companies like Ford to halt car production. The fiasco raised the stakes for countries to secure their own caches of the metals used to make wind turbines, MRI machines, jets and other electronics. The money will help Torngat finish engineering and environmental studies for its mine site and separation plant in Quebec, and a road to Voisey’s Bay, N.L. Torngat would focus on dysprosium, which is used to build motors, and terbium, used in solid-state electronics.