In this second episode, APF Canada’s Canada-Indo-Pacific Critical Minerals Hub’s key advisor and APF Canada John H. McArthur Research Fellow Pascale Massot, also Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa, talks with Constantine Karayannopoulos, Former Chief Executive Officer at Neo Performance Materials and a world-renowned industry insider in rare earth elements and critical minerals.
The conversation explores the current landscape of the mining industry in Canada and globally, with a focus on the key challenges Western efforts face in building more resilient critical minerals supply chains. Karayannopoulos, also a chemical engineer, warns it could take at least a decade to make meaningful progress, above all if governments rely on market forces to resolve the supply chain's biggest chokepoint: midstream processing.
Looking ahead, he draws on the experiences of Japan and Brazil, where strategic investment and long-term planning have proven effective, and argues that Canada must move beyond its current export-oriented model. Committing to value-added production, from mineral processing to the manufacturing of advanced products, would generate greater economic returns, he explains, making the case that strategic investment in defence, innovation, and critical minerals technologies will be essential to building lasting economic resilience and strengthening national security.
