Canada Infrastructure Bank commits CAD 55 million loan to Torngat Metals for Strange Lake rare earths project

Mechanism

CIB reached financial close 2025-06-23 on a CAD 55 million project-finance loan to Torngat Metals to advance the next phase of its Strange Lake rare earth project — CIB's first-ever critical minerals investment. The deposit carries a significant quantity of light and heavy rare earths, notably dysprosium and terbium, both essential inputs to high-performance permanent magnets used in EV motors, wind turbines and defence applications. Loan proceeds fund enabling infrastructure only (utility connections, airstrip rehabilitation, site upgrades) rather than mine construction itself, preparing the site for a future open-pit mine and concentration plant in Nunavik (Quebec) and a downstream separation plant in Sept-Îles, Quebec — with related project infrastructure also spanning into Labrador. The project is expected to create approximately 450 jobs once operational.

Export Development Canada is separately providing a CAD 110 million bridge facility to fund pre-construction engineering and environmental studies needed for permitting, bringing the combined federal financing package to CAD 165 million. CIB frames the loan as consistent with the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy and as bridging financing gaps unique to early-stage mining. Severity is set at 2 (quant) — smaller in scale than CIB's larger single-project financings in the register (e.g. the CAD 1 billion BC Ferries loan, severity 3) and reflecting that this tranche funds pre-construction enabling works rather than full project capital.

Downstream implications

• First CIB critical-minerals-sector investment; a template CIB may repeat

for other early-stage Canadian rare-earth/critical-mineral projects (worth watching for follow-on CIB critical-minerals loans).

• Strange Lake heavy rare earth output (dysprosium, terbium) would feed

North American permanent-magnet supply chains seeking to diversify away from China-dominated processing — relevant to allied de-risking efforts tracked elsewhere in the register.

• Combined CAD 165 million package (CIB + EDC) is enabling/pre-construction

financing only; actual mine and separation-plant construction financing, and permitting outcomes in Quebec and Labrador, remain open.

Open questions

• CIB's concessional interest rate on the facility was not disclosed in the

primary source.

• Timeline and financing structure for the subsequent mine-construction and

separation-plant phases once enabling infrastructure and permitting are complete.