The increasing number of electric vehicles charged with renewable energy, connected to 5G networks, and boasting the computing power of 200 laptops to autonomously traverse global highways is creating a meteoric rise in demand for the minerals and metals critical to clean energy and high-tech…Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, the foremost authority on lithium battery supply chains, estimates that more than 300 new mines will need to come online by 2035 – just to produce the cobalt, graphite, lithium, and nickel that go into EV batteries…Alaska, Northern BC, and Northwest Territories are also positioned to deliver bismuth, cobalt, graphite, and tungsten from projects that are in the advanced stages of exploration or early development. These northern mining jurisdictions are also highly prospective for virtually every other mineral and metal deemed critical to Canada and the United States…Given the global competition for the enormous volumes of mined materials needed to build the envisioned clean energy future, coupled with rising geopolitical considerations surrounding Russia's invasion of Ukraine and America's tenuous relationship with China, Ottawa and Washington, DC, are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to establish secure and reliable critical mineral supply chains in North America…Alaska, Northern BC, and NWT are positioning themselves to leverage their critical minerals abundance to be important links at the front end of these emerging supply chains…A new era for NWT…The mining of gold, zinc, and diamonds has provided a foundation for Northwest Territories' economy for more than a century. Now, the northern Canada territory is looking to build upon this legacy by feeding critical minerals and metals into North American supply chains…NWT hosts known deposits and occurrences with 23 of 31 minerals that have been deemed critical by the Canadian government, and this northern territory that is about twice the size of Texas is as underexplored as it is vast…Above and beyond being enriched with rare earths and other critical minerals often imported from places like China, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Russia, the permitting system in NWT ensures that the mined commodities produced in the territory meet high environmental, social, governance, and indigenous participation standards…"We are world leaders in these measures, well known for our environmental oversight, Indigenous representation in regulatory processes, and the recognition of traditional knowledge," Wawzonek said. "In fact, the NWT model; the ESG-I, with its unique approach to collaborative and consensus-based legislative development, resource royalty sharing, and socio-economic and benefit agreements, is anchored by the critical leadership of NWT Indigenous Governments in resource exploration and development in Canada."…Like the rest of Canada's North and Alaska, NWT is a vast and remote land with limited transportation and energy infrastructure. This often makes the economics of mining even high-grade deposits, especially those that produce a concentrate that must be shipped elsewhere for processing, out of reach…The territory, which has been working to bridge this gap between its rich mineral resources and the markets that need them, hopes the federal government's C$3.8 billion (US$3 billion) budget to support Canada's critical minerals strategy includes funds to continue this effort…The recently completed 97-kilometer (60 miles) Tlicho Highway to the community of Whati is an example of recent efforts to extend infrastructure closer to the territory's critical mineral potential…Funded by a partnership between the federal, territorial, and Tlicho First Nations governments, this recently completed project extends road access to within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of Fortune Minerals Ltd.'s NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project, which will need road access to deliver concentrates to market…Located about 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of northern NWT rail system terminus at Hay River, NICO is a near-development stage project that includes an intriguing mix of critical and precious metals that makes it an intriguing prospect…The C$3.8 billion (US$3 billion) federal budget to support the development of critical minerals across Canada includes C$1.5 billion (US$1.2 billion) specifically designated for infrastructure investments to unlock new mineral projects in critical regions.