Natural Resources Canada has issued a formal Request for Information on a proposed "Mined in Canada" digital credential - the federal government's most direct step yet toward mandatory provenance disclosure for battery minerals. The development carries material compliance, procurement, and cost implications for mineral exporters, EV automakers, and grid-scale storage developers across North America.
Background
Canada's push for mineral traceability builds on a multi-year policy trajectory that gained significant momentum in 2025. At the G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis in June 2025, Canada announced the G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan, which tasked relevant ministers with developing a Roadmap to advance standards-based markets for critical minerals. The resulting G7 Roadmap, published in October 2025, established that traceability and transparency systems are necessary to verify high-standard production and responsible supply chains, and committed members to progressively increase supply chain traceability through interoperable systems.
Domestically, Natural Resources Canada unlocked C$6.4 billion across 26 critical minerals projects in October 2025 through the Critical Minerals Production Alliance, targeting extraction operations and downstream processing activities across the complete value chain. The government has also designated certain critical minerals as a national security priority under the Defence Production Act, and between 2020 and 2024 reduced net import reliance for 38% of critical minerals that were previously net import-reliant between 2018 and 2022.
Canada still lacks codified battery traceability requirements comparable to those in the United States and European Union. The 2022 Critical Minerals Strategy emphasizes commitment to traceability technologies to prevent products linked to conflict, child labour, or unsustainable practices from entering supply chains - but formal regulation has not followed.
Details
Natural Resources Canada's Request for Information on a "Mined in Canada" digital credential, published in early 2026, is the clearest signal yet of an impending formalized framework. The proposed credential would serve as a secure, verifiable proof of Canadian provenance for minerals mined in Canada, with the goal of enhancing supply chain transparency, supporting trade compliance, and strengthening Canada's position in global critical mineral markets. The RFI acknowledges that mining companies currently lack a consistent method to demonstrate the origin of Canadian-sourced minerals to downstream actors, including processors, refineries, smelters, manufacturers, border agencies, and international partners.
The initiative aligns with three converging obligations: Canada's 2022 Critical Minerals Strategy, the G7 Roadmap's goals on supply chain traceability and provenance, and the Canada-EU Digital Trade Agreement's intention to enhance interoperability of digital credentials. Additionally, the EU's Batteries Regulation is expected to require digital product passports for all batteries entering the market for light- and medium-duty vehicles as of February 2027, which will include details on chain of custody. Canadian mineral exporters supplying European battery supply chains will need to comply regardless of domestic timelines.
The G7 Roadmap further commits to the development of a global framework for the interoperability of digital credentials and digital product passport compatibility aligned with the UN Transparency Protocol. According to the G7 document, disclosure of key information at the country and project level, in compliance with domestic laws and protection of confidential business information, is part of the standards framework. For battery-grade lithium, graphite, and nickel - minerals in which Canada holds significant domestic reserves - the credential would provide verifiable chain-of-custody data from extraction through refining.
Canada actively supports the Global Battery Alliance and the International Standards Organization in efforts to strengthen interoperability of global traceability frameworks, according to legal analysis published by Gowling WLG. The EU's battery passport, codified under Article 77 of EU Batteries Regulation 1542, is designed to track and trace batteries while providing information on carbon intensity, material origin, and renewable content - the template Canada's framework seeks to align with.
Outlook
Natural Resources Canada plans to advance Canada's role in the global critical minerals agenda ahead of the IEA 2026 Ministerial Meeting and the Prospectors and Developers Annual Conference in 2026. Both events are expected to accelerate alignment on interoperable digital traceability standards across G7 partners. For EV OEMs and grid storage developers operating North American supply chains, the window to voluntarily adopt provenance tracking ahead of potential regulatory mandates is narrowing. Procurement strategies that cannot demonstrate certified Canadian or allied-nation mineral origin face increasing exposure under both current U.S. IRA traced-qualifying value requirements and forthcoming EU battery passport rules - creating a compliance pincer from both export markets.
For more on how geopolitical disruptions have reshaped battery metals sourcing strategies, see our earlier analysis: Iran Conflict Reshuffles Battery Metals Supply Chains.
