How is mine development progressing under Trump 2.0?

Critical minerals have climbed to the top of the political agenda under the second Trump administration, as focus has centered on bolstering US mining and critical mineral processing to reduce strategic dependencies on China.

Through a series of Executive Orders, President Trump has invoked executive powers to develop domestic supply chains. This has included expediting permitting approvals, repurposing Biden-era funding for domestic projects, government-backed offtakes, and tariffs.

Perhaps most notably, the Trump administration announced 20 mining projects that will benefit from streamlined permitting —known as FAST-41—in April and May, fast-tracking multi-year environmental reviews to a maximum of 28 days.

Copper has been a major focus area in this regard, with four copper-producing projects included on the FAST-41 list due to the red metal’s foundational role in the global economy. Combined, the Resolution and NewRange copper mines (the two largest copper projects on the FAST-41 list) are slated to bring an additional 476kt of copper capacity online, equivalent to nearly 70% of US copper imports in 2024.

Leveraging existing mechanisms

But it is not just Trump-era mechanisms paying dividends. Prospective graphite miner, Graphite One, announced the completion of a bankable feasibility study several months early in April, a key beneficiary of the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III funding invoked by the Biden administration through the Inflation Reduction Act.

Graphite One CEO, Anthony Huston, notes that the DPA Title III grant played a critical role in accelerating development timelines for the Graphite Creek project in Alaska. “With DoD’s $37.5 million grant, Graphite One cut 15 months off the projected timeline to complete our feasibility study. In Alaska, where seasonal effects are a constant unknown, that may have saved two years on the development path,” he said.

The Graphite Creek project—alongside South Star Battery Metals’ BamaStar and Westwater Resources Coosa projects—is one of three early stage US-based graphite mines pivotal to reducing US reliance on China. The US was wholly dependent on natural graphite imports to meet demand in 2024, 40% of which originated from China.

Lithium Americas, a fellow recipient of DPA Title III funding, announced a $250 million strategic investment from Orion Resource Partners in April, to support the continued development of the Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada. Albermarle’s Kings Mountain mine in North Carolina has also been a recipient of DPA Title III funding.

Meanwhile, in January 2025, Standard Lithium, in partnership with Equinor, finalised a $225 million grant from the US Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing & Energy Supply Chains.

“What we are seeing now is an acceleration under President Trump,” Huston added. “Politics is a given, but I’m confident that the long-term policies of the US Government are going to lean toward domestic supply chain development.”

Processing a key bottleneck

Yet, even where domestic mining does exist, such as for copper and rare earths, the US lacks sufficient processing capacity to refine extracted minerals, remaining dependent on third countries, such as China, to upgrade the material.

According to the Benchmark Copper Service, nearly half (48%) of the copper contained in US mined concentrate was exported in 2024, largely due to limited domestic smelting capacity.

Last month the Trump administration launched a Section 232 probe into imports of processed critical minerals and rare earth elements (REEs) to identify US supply chain vulnerabilities at this stage of the value chain.

Supply self-sufficiency?

Benchmark data shows that even if all planned US mining projects were to come to fruition, there will still be a shortfall in domestic supply for several critical minerals.

As such, despite efforts to boost local mining, the US will remain reliant on imports to meet growing domestic demand, particularly for nickel, cobalt, and graphite; underscoring the necessity for expanded investment and diplomatic engagement in foreign strategic mineral projects across resource-rich regions, such as Africa and Latin America.

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