In the middle of the week, France signed two bilateral agreements. One with Canada and the other with Australia, two commodity giants. It believes in securing its supply of metals, which are essential for the energy transition.

Australia produces more than half of the world's lithium and Canada is a major supplier of nickel and uranium. The two agreements signed with these countries are not commercial, they do not relate to defined volumes, but aim, according to the French Ministry for Energy Transition, “to develop critical mineral sectors, including extraction, treatment and recycling projects and to promote cooperation”. Australia is by far the world's largest producer of lithium with nearly 50% of the white metal extracted from rocks on the ocean continent. On the other hand, Canada is a major producer of nickel, a metal essential to the manufacture of electric car batteries. These two metals will power gigafactories, battery factories under construction on French territory