The Trump administration has expanded its pressure campaign against Cuba into the critical minerals sector, sanctioning a nickel joint venture tied to Canadian miner Sherritt International in a move that could reverberate through China-linked battery supply chains.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions on Thursday against Moa Nickel SA, a joint venture between Sherritt and Cuba’s state-owned General Nickel Company, as part of a broader effort targeting Havana’s military-controlled economy.
Hours earlier, Sherritt said it had suspended its direct participation in joint-venture activities in Cuba “effective immediately” and had begun repatriating expatriate employees from the island. The company also said it had asked partners to repatriate personnel in Canada.
Three Sherritt directors, including chairman Brian Imrie, also resigned with immediate effect.
Sherritt said sanctions measures announced by Washington on May 1 had already “materially alter[ed]” its ability to operate normally in Cuba. In addition to the Moa joint venture, the company owns a one-third stake in Energas, which accounts for about 10 per cent of Cuba’s electricity generation capacity.
Under President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14404, issued on May 1, the United States can block the assets of foreign individuals or entities operating in key sectors of the Cuban economy – including energy, financial services, mining and defence – or providing material, financial or technological support to the government.
In addition to Moa Nickel SA, Washington announced sanctions against the military-controlled Grupo de Administracion Empresarial (GAESA) and its senior executive officer, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera. Experts estimate GAESA controls between 40 and 70 per cent of Cuba’s economy.
“Additional designations can be expected in the following days and weeks,” the State Department said.
The developments underscore growing tensions between Washington’s aggressive sanctions policy and its parallel effort to secure alternative sources of nickel and cobalt, minerals essential for electric-vehicle batteries and energy-transition technologies that are heavily processed within China’s industrial supply chains.
Sherritt says nickel and cobalt produced through the Moa joint venture are sold primarily in Europe, Japan and China, underscoring how the operation feeds into Asian battery and industrial supply chains.
Analysts say Sherritt represents a relatively rare Western-linked nickel and cobalt supply chain operating largely outside China, even though much of its output ultimately flows into Asian markets dominated by Chinese processing.
The company’s Fort Saskatchewan refinery in Alberta has an annual production capacity of about 35,000 tonnes of nickel and 3,800 tonnes of cobalt, according to company reports, making it one of the few significant nickel-cobalt refining hubs in North America.
In a corporate update earlier this week, Sherritt described the Alberta facility as the only significant cobalt refinery and one of just three nickel refineries in North America. Analysts say the sanctions risk complicating Western efforts to diversify critical mineral supply chains away from Chinese dominance, even as Washington seeks to reduce reliance on Beijing in strategic sectors.
Sherritt said on Thursday there was “no immediate impact” on the refinery’s operations and that existing feed inventory was expected to support production until about mid-June.