Critical mineral policies and industry partnerships have accelerated since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, opening the door to more domestic metals production, Trump administration officials and industry leaders said Dec. 15 at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event.
Trump has issued multiple executive orders focused on boosting domestic energy production in the US and reducing reliance on countries such as China for critical minerals used in the defense, technology and industrial sectors. Policy actions include Trump's directive in April to accelerate domestic critical mineral production using streamlined permitting processes through the FAST-41 program.
Industry participants and US government officials said these programs will help expedite projects as the US looks to ramp up production as quickly as possible.
"The way he has leveraged every tool at his disposal to do that I think will go down in history as one of the key policy decisions that President Trump made," Jarrod Agen, executive director of the White House National Energy Dominance Council, said.
Agen said Trump is "throwing the old rule book out the window" to take a renewed interest in making the US a leader in critical minerals.
Bipartisan effort
The past year has seen intensified focus and bipartisan support on expanding domestic critical minerals production, Reggie Singh, the State Department's acting deputy assistant secretary for energy and critical minerals, said during the CSIS event. This includes stockpiling, price support and congressional permitting reform to support investments in mining and diversify the critical mineral supply chain.
Both chambers of Congress are working to advance bipartisan legislation that would streamline the permitting process for mining projects. Other legislation looks to address China's dominance of critical minerals in the global marketplace.
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) co-sponsored the Restoring American Mineral Security Act that would establish a Critical Minerals Security Alliance. Countries that join the alliance would be exempt from tariffs on critical minerals and products made from them.
Cortez Masto said policymakers need to work across the aisle to establish a long-term critical minerals plan.
"Success is we're all rowing the boat in the same direction on the federal level and we see that we have to address this issue," Cortez Masto said. "If we do not, we're going to be left behind. It's not just China. We're going to be left behind in this technology race."
Cash boost
Funding for the mineral sector also helps boost the speed of project developments, Agen said, referencing public-private partnerships like the Defense Department's $400 million equity investment and 10-year offtake agreement with MP Materials Corp. These public investments give projects more credibility and the ability to sustain long lead times, he said.
"We view it as we're going to put skin in the game," Agen said, adding that there are more government funding announcements to come.
He also categorized Trump's aggressiveness and business approach as one of the more effective tools deployed by the administration, citing Trump's executive order directing agencies to approve permits for the Ambler Road Project in Alaska. The project would build a road connecting a major highway to a remote mining district that has deposits of copper, cobalt and other metals.
