Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said Canadian companies have secured $12 billion worth of mining-sector deals with G7 partners, including agreements with Apple and Canadian jewelry company Mejuri to buy metal from Regeneration’s B.C. mine. The government is also increasing its own funding to companies including Frontier Lithium, Cyclic Materials and Rio Tinto, as well as Greenland Resources, which will work with ​​Inuit-owned construction company Nuna Group. (The Logic)

Talking point: In a speech in Toronto at the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference, Hodgson reiterated Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Davos message that there has been “a rupture in the world order,” but said that Canada is an alternative for countries that don’t want to buy resources from “hegemons.” While Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has called for Canada to use its critical mineral stockpiles as a negotiation tactic with the U.S., Hodgson said Monday that Canada “will never use our resources as a coercive tool.”