The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Feb. 7, edition that if U.S. customers want to buy fewer critical minerals from Canada, in many cases they would be forced to source them from hostile countries such as Russia and China. The Globe's Niall McGee writes that Canada Nickel chief executive officer Mark Selby says that even if President Donald Trump moves ahead on tariffs in critical minerals, his company will still likely end up selling its nickel into the U.S. because the country does not really have other good alternative suppliers. Canada Nickel is developing the Crawford nickel project in Ontario. Mr. Selby says, "If the U.S. shuts the doors on our nickel, they'll have to get it from somewhere else, and they'll struggle." Foreign mining giants Vale and Glencore operate massive nickel mines and refineries in Canada, supplying about 60 per cent of the U.S.'s imports of the metal. Northern Graphite CEO Hugues Jacquemin calls Mr. Trump's carve-out for critical minerals "a small mercy." Northern Graphite operates Canada's only graphite mine in Quebec. Mr. Jacquemin adds: "It still would have been an unwelcome hit to our customers. And we're not out of the woods yet."