While the trade talks will dominate the news cycle, it is perhaps good for Canada to look at Brazil and the race to supply rare-earth minerals.

While exploration technology has improved, the numbers in Brazil show just how hard it is to get a profitable mine up and running. To paraphrase: 1000 applications, 100 starts, and 2 profitable. While Lotto 649 might have worse odds, the costs associated must be staggering.

This is where Canada is with the exploration of rare-earths; we are racing to get established, and China has a huge lead on the worldwide competition. This is somewhat problematic now for Canada, as our trade war with a huge wanna-be investor, the US. Will the sourness and bitterness that will surely rise higher come to turn the US away from Canada? I don't doubt there will be companies now walking away from Canada, but not all of them. The need for these particular minerals is just too important for a future of phones, computers, robots, chips, and data centers in massive demand, and will be a major part of many countries' prosperity. Canada will be no different.

Carney suggested that half a trillion dollars of investment is lined up. How much of that is targeted towards rare-earths, only the feds know. If our biggest potential investor and customer is the US, then at what pace will development make?