** Shares of Australian critical mineral producers rise after Australia and Canada sign a new agreement on critical minerals

** Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would join the Canada-led G7 critical minerals production alliance, which seeks to diversify and secure global critical minerals supply

** Lithium producer PLS Group PLS.AX rises 1.4%, while Liontown LTR.AX and IGO IGO.AX gain 1% each; all three stocks among top gainers in the benchmark ASX 200 index .AXJO

** Terra Critical Minerals T92.AX gains 12.4% and Brazilian Critical Minerals BCM.AX up 8.6%

** The broader mining sub-index .AXMM down 0.6%

(Reporting by Shruti Agarwal in Bengaluru)

((Shruti.Agarwal@thomsonreuters.com))