Government scrambles to contain fallout

First Nations leaders, including the Chiefs of Ontario, have demanded the bill be scrapped entirely, arguing the government has already breached its legal obligation to engage in meaningful consultation from the outset.

Ontario Regional Chief Abram Benedict, who met privately with Ford last week, described the discussions as frank, but necessary. That meeting, according to the provincial government, catalyzed a round of renewed engagement, with Greg Rickford, minister of Indigenous affairs and Stephen Lecce, minister of energy and mines, pledging not to move forward with the Ring of Fire designation without further consultation.

“We will not use the authorities like a special economic zone until we’ve meaningfully consulted,” Lecce said.

Rickford added, “We are going to enunciate explicitly in each one that the duty to consult is there and it will be upheld to the highest standards. The aim is to make First Nations partners.”

Officially titled the ‘Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act’, Bill 5 was unveiled at the Toronto Stock Exchange in April, with Ford and Lecce framing it as a decisive response to geopolitical tensions.

They also positioned it as a means of asserting control over Canada’s critical mineral resources.

“With President Trump taking direct aim at our economy, it cannot be business as usual,” Ford said at the time, referencing the US push to prioritize domestic mineral supply chains.

The bill grants the province sweeping new powers to revoke mining claims, restrict foreign ownership — particularly from “hostile regimes” — and override environmental and regulatory hurdles.

It also proposes replacing Ontario’s Endangered Species Act with a narrower Species Conservation Act, a change that environmentalists warn could spell extinction for at-risk wildlife.

“The definition of habitat is so narrow that what it means is less habitat than the species has now,” Laura Bowman of Ecojustice told CBC when the bill was introduced. “And less habitat than the species has now, for a species already in decline, virtually ensures extirpation or extinction.”

US$3.1 billion budget boost targets Indigenous inclusion

Even as heated discourse unfolds with Ontario’s First Nations, the province unveiled last week a massive C$3.1 billion investment to supercharge the province’s mining and energy infrastructure.

The 2025 budget includes a tripling of the Indigenous Opportunities Financing Program, which has been expanded to support Indigenous participation across the mining, pipeline and energy sectors.

Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy emphasized that the goal is “unlocking the province’s critical mineral reserves” while placing Indigenous partnerships “at the forefront of the province’s resource development strategy.”

The program is designed to offer loan guarantees that enable Indigenous communities to secure equity stakes in major projects — a model that First Nations have long advocated for as a way to transform economic marginalization into opportunity.

National parallels in BC’s Bill 15 battle

Ontario’s retreat on consultation provisions follows similar tensions in BC, where Premier David Eby is facing backlash over Bill 15 — a legislative proposal that would allow cabinet to fast-track infrastructure and resource projects deemed of “provincial significance,” including critical minerals development.

Eby unveiled a broad vision this week to unlock billions in investments in Northwest BC, emphasizing partnerships with Indigenous communities and positioning mining as central to both economic recovery and climate transition.

But critics argue the rhetoric masks a legal and ethical failure.

“Trust has been broken between First Nations and the David Eby government,” Tsartlip First Nation Chief Don Tom said bluntly. Calling Eby a “snake oil salesman,” Tom accused the provincial government of undermining true consultation, while pushing legislation that could override Indigenous opposition.

Like Ontario’s Bill 5, BC’s Bill 15 is being slammed as a dangerous precedent that gives the government outsized power to override environmental protections and community consent.

Both the BC and Ontario governments are facing similar dilemmas on the acceleration of critical minerals development to meet global demand while tempering their legal and moral obligations to stakeholders.

The minerals — including nickel, lithium and rare earth elements — are essential to the green energy transition, forming key components of batteries, solar panels, and electric vehicles.

Still, First Nations are demanding that any progress must start not only with a recognition of their economic potential, but of their right to self-determination and free, prior and informed consent.

White House reacts swiftly, blasts judicial overreach

Trump administration officials reacted with fury to the trade court’s initial decision, describing it as an affront to executive authority in foreign policy and economic matters.

“The political branches, not courts, make foreign policy and chart economic policy,” the White House said in its appeal filing. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed similar concerns on Thursday, saying:

“America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.”

Trump himself took to social media on Thursday morning to vent, writing: “Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY.”

He later added: “This would completely destroy Presidential Power — The Presidency would never be the same!”

Peter Navarro, Trump’s top trade advisor, also signaled that the administration was already exploring alternatives, stating that even if it lost the battle in the Supreme Court, it “will do it another way.”

The Wednesday judgment had required the White House to make changes within 10 days.

The administration responded by notifying both the trade court and the appellate court of its intent to challenge the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.

“TACO trade” meme gains steam as Trump backpedals

Adding to the storm surrounding the tariffs is growing traction of the term “TACO trade” — a satirical acronym coined by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong that stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

The phrase has caught fire on Wall Street and social media, referring to Trump’s habit of threatening steep tariffs, only to roll them back amid market backlash or diplomatic pressure.

The phenomenon was on full display last month, when Trump announced what he called “Liberation Day,” unveiling sweeping tariffs as high as 145 percent on imports from nearly every major trading partner.

Within a week, those tariffs were scaled down to a baseline 10 percent. Duties on Chinese goods were first reduced to 30 percent and then to 10 percent, while deadlines for tariffs on European goods were postponed.

On Wednesday, visibly irritated by the nickname, Trump lashed out at a reporter who asked about the “TACO trade” label. “Oh, I chicken out. Isn’t that nice? I’ve never heard that,” Trump said, bristling at the question.

“You call that chickening out? It’s called negotiation,” he added.

“Six months ago, this country was stone cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country that people didn’t think was going to survive. And you ask a nasty question like that,’ Trump continued.

Despite his protests, “TACO trade” has become a viral symbol of his erratic approach to global commerce. California Governor Gavin Newsom mocked the administration after the trade court ruling, saying, “It’s raining tacos today.”

So far, the administration’s tariffs on steel, aluminum and cars remain untouched by the ruling.

Markets and commodities react

In Canada, major indexes were mixed at the end of the week.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) gained 0.9 percent during the week to close at 26,175.05 on Friday. However, the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) fell 0.02 percent to 694.40 and the CSE Composite Index (CSE:CSECOMP) shed 3.78 percent to 115.01.

US equities were in positive territory this week, with the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:INX) gaining 2.24 percent to close at 5,911.68, the Nasdaq-100 (INDEXNASDAQ:NDX) rising 2.57 percent to 21,340.99 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) adding 1.79 percent to 42,270.08.

The gold price was flat this week, posting a loss of just 0.04 percent, to close Friday at US$3,293.21. The silver price was also marginally down, shedding 0.54 percent during the period to US$32.87.

In base metals, the COMEX copper price fell 3.47 percent over the week to US$4.72 per pound, pulling back from its gains seen late last week. Meanwhile, the S&P GSCI (INDEXSP:SPGSCI) posted a decline of 1.57 percent to close at 524.66.

Top Canadian mining stocks this week

How did mining stocks perform against this backdrop?

Take a look at this week’s five best-performing Canadian mining stocks below.

Stock data for this article was retrieved at 4 p.m. EDT on Friday using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies trading on the TSX, TSXV and CSE with market capitalizations greater than C$10 million are included. Companies within the non-energy minerals and energy minerals sectors were considered.

1. Adyton Resources (TSXV:ADY)

Weekly gain: 96.55 percent
Market cap: C$59.79 million
Share price: C$0.285

Adyton Resources is working to advance the Feni Island and Fergusson Island gold projects in Papua New Guinea.

The Feni Island site has seen historic exploration, with 212 holes drilled over 18,813 meters. While limited work has been conducted by Adyton, a 2021 resource estimate shows an inferred resource of 1.46 million ounces of gold. The company has been working to expand its gold resource and explore for copper at greater depths than previous exploration.

While Feni Island has been its primary focus, Adyton has also been working to advance its Fergusson Island project.

The project consists of two advanced exploration licenses for the Wapolu and Gameta targets, which host a combined indicated resource of 173,000 ounces of gold and an inferred resource of 540,000 ounces of gold. The site also hosts a past-producing mine, which was abandoned in the 1990s.

On March 12, Adyton reported that a team from the Papua New Guinea Mineral Resource Authority had visited the Fergusson Island site to familiarize themselves with the project and to provide an approval process for the restart of the mine.

The most recent news from Adyton came on Wednesday (May 28), when it released its first quarter management discussion and analysis. In the report, the company provided a summary of its activities during the first quarter and demonstrated an increase in its balance sheet compared to the previous quarter.

2. Sterling Metals (TSXV:SAG)

Weekly gain: 80.77 percent
Market cap: C$15.15 million
Share price: C$0.47

Sterling Metals is an exploration company working to advance a trio of projects in Canada.

Over the past year, its primary focus has been on exploration at its brownfield Soo copper project in Ontario, which it recently renamed from Copper Road. The 25,000 hectare property hosts two past-producing copper mines and has the potential for larger intrusion-related copper mineralization.

On January 15, Sterling announced results from a 3D induced polarization and resistivity survey that covered an area of 5 kilometers by 3 kilometers and revealed multiple high-priority drill-ready targets. The company intends to use the survey results, along with historical exploration, to inform a drill program at the site.

The company’s other two projects are located in Newfoundland and Labrador. Adeline is a 297 square kilometer district-scale property with sediment-hosted copper and silver mineralization along 44 kilometers of the strike, and Sail Pond is a silver, copper, lead and zinc project that hosts a 16 kilometer long linear soil anomaly and has seen 16,000 meters of drilling.

On Thursday, Sterling announced that the first of four diamond drill holes from the initial drill program at Soo ‘demonstrated a continuous, bulk-tonnage copper-molybdenum-silver-gold target, called the GFP Porphyry.’ The company highlighted a broad, near-surface zone grading 0.28 percent copper equivalent over a length of 482.8 meters, which included an intersection of 0.56 percent copper equivalent over the first 75.2 meters.

3. Grid Battery Metals (TSXV:CELL)

Weekly gain: 58.33 percent
Market cap: C$23.19 million
Share price: C$0.095

Grid Battery Metals is a North America battery metals company with a portfolio of lithium projects in Nevada, US, including the Clayton Valley lithium project. The company also recently acquired the Grid copper-gold project in North-central British Columbia, Canada.

The project consists of 17 claims covering a total land package of 27,525 hectares in the Omineca Mining Division near Fort St. James. Grid announced on March 17 that it had completed the acquisition of the property from former Grid subsidiary AC/DC Battery Metals (TSXV:ACDC) in exchange for 5 million shares in Grid at C$0.05 per share as well as a C$48,172.15 payment for staking costs.

The property has seen minimal exploration, but a technical report for the site included a mineral resource estimate for the neighboring Kwanika-Stardust project owned by Northwest Copper (TSXV:NWST,OTC Pink:NWCCF).

The Kwanika Central Zone hosts measured and indicated resources of 385.7 million pounds of copper, 532,500 ounces of gold and 1.97 million ounces of silver from the open pit area, as well as 410.6 million pounds of copper, 738,000 ounces of gold and 1.9 million ounces of silver from the underground portion.

Shares in Grid saw gains this week, but the company’s most recent project-related news came on May 20, when it announced it had engaged with Hardline Exploration to begin to begin work at the property.

4. EMP Metals (CSE:EMPS)

Weekly gain: 54.17 percent
Market cap: C$40.79 million
Share price: C$0.37

EMP Metals is a lithium exploration and development company working to advance its EMP direct lithium extraction project in Saskatchewan, Canada. The project is composed of three prospective lithium brine properties covering an area of 81,000 hectares.

A February 2024 preliminary economic assessment for the lithium brines in the Viewfield area of Southern Saskatchewan suggests a resource of 130,056 metric tons of lithium in place from a total brine volume of 1.06 billion cubic meters.

The economics of the project indicate an after-tax net present value at a discount rate of 8 percent of C$1.44 billion with an internal rate of return of 45.1 percent over a payout period of 2.4 years.

Shares in EMP gained this past week after it announced on Thursday it entered into a deal with Saltwork Technologies to develop, build and operate a lithium refining demonstration plant at the Viewfield property.

Once complete, the plant will process 10 cubic meters per day of lithium brine into concentrated lithium chloride. Additionally, Saltworks will upgrade its lithium conversion plant in Richmond, British Columbia, to continuously process lithium chloride into lithium carbonate.

5. Mogotes Metals (TSXV:MOG)

Weekly gain: 54.05 percent
Market cap: C$48.46 million
Share price: C$0.285

Mogotes Metals is an explorer working to advance its Filo Sur copper-gold-silver project, which straddles the border between Argentina and Chile in the Vicuña copper district.

The Argentinean portion of the site, representing the bulk of the land package at 8,118 hectares, is the subject of an earn-in agreement with Golden Arrow Resources (TSXV:GRG,OTCQB:GARWF), a member of the Grosso Group.

On March 26, Mogotes announced that it had closed an amended deal that would provide the company with 100 percent ownership of the project. Under the terms of the deal, Mogotes paid Golden Arrow C$550,000 in cash, issued 10.71 million common shares and invested C$450,000 in Golden Arrow via a private placement. The terms also include future commitments.

The company’s most recent news came on May 12, when it announced that the first line of a geophysical survey had identified a large, near surface anomaly located 2.8 kilometers south of Lundin Mining’s (TSX:LUN,OTCQX:LUNMF) Filo Del Sol project.

FAQs for Canadian mining stocks

How much does it cost to list on the TSXV?

There are a variety of different fees that companies must pay to list on the TSXV, and according to the exchange, they can vary based on the transaction’s nature and complexity. The listing fee alone will most likely cost between C$10,000 to C$70,000. Accounting and auditing fees could rack up between C$25,000 and C$100,000, while legal fees are expected to be over C$75,000 and an underwriters’ commission may hit up to 12 percent.

The exchange lists a handful of other fees and expenses companies can expect, including but not limited to security commission and transfer agency fees, investor relations costs and director and officer liability insurance.

These are all just for the initial listing, of course. There are ongoing expenses once companies are trading, such as sustaining fees and additional listing fees, plus the costs associated with filing regular reports.

How do you trade on the TSXV?

Investors can trade on the TSXV the way they would trade stocks on any exchange. This means they can use a stock broker or an individual investment account to buy and sell shares of TSXV-listed companies during the exchange’s trading hours.