Rock paper signed. Invoking emergency powers on Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to increase critical mineral production. The White House noted that 70 percent of US imports of rare earths come from China, and the United States must secure more sources. But in the measures it announces to increase supplies, Trump’s order goes beyond these ultra-scarce elements and compounds to include copper, uranium, potash, gold, and potentially even coal as critical. So, what does this order mean for mineral supply chains? Two of our top experts from the Global Energy Center, Alexis Harmon and Reed Blakemore, dig into the details.
1. Why is the Trump administration focused on critical minerals?
Securing US critical mineral supply chains has been a priority for the Trump administration since day one. These roughly fifty minerals serve as the building blocks of many modern technologies—think fighter jets, semiconductors, electric vehicle batteries, and cell phones. With the United States deeply reliant on foreign sources for these crucial inputs, the administration sees boosting US mineral production as a victory on two fronts: It reduces national security risks tied to dependence on China, and it promotes job creation and economic prosperity by revitalizing domestic mining and processing industries.
2. How does the executive order approach securing US critical mineral supply chains?
Trump’s new executive order, “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production,” uses emergency powers to streamline permitting and ramp up investment through several important mechanisms.
Rapid permitting: Opening up new mines and processing facilities can take decades, and arduous permitting processes are often a major hurdle. Projects sometimes spend a decade languishing in permitting processes. In this order, agencies have been given just ten days to compile a list of pending mineral production projects that could be immediately approved, plus fifteen days to nominate potential candidates for FAST-41 status, which fast-tracks approvals. Although this would be extremely effective in speeding up project timelines, critics warn of serious environmental consequences.
Improved financing: The White House is using a variety of tools here, but most important are the Defense Production Act (DPA) and the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The DPA is a powerful industrial-policy tool, traditionally meant to direct production according to defense needs in wartime. By giving the DPA Section 303 authority to the Department of Defense and DFC, the government has the power to directly fund domestic mining and processing projects through subsidies, loans, loan guarantees, and supply contracts. The order also calls for all agencies with loan authorities to speed up approval processes, and it provides interesting new mechanisms for offtake support through the US Export-Import Bank and coordinated bidding processes.
Other things of note: The order also calls for federal lands to prioritize mining operations over all other activity, as well as the Small Business Administration to provide support to small businesses engaged in mineral production. It also calls for increased technical assistance to mining companies (although it’s unclear that the United States has the expertise needed) and improvements to waste management.
3. What’s noteworthy about this approach?
Several additional elements of the order are important to note.
Minerals mentioned: The new order explicitly calls uranium, copper, potash, and gold critical minerals, plus it gives the National Energy Dominance Council the authority to deem any material as a qualifying mineral affected by the order. A subsequent White House fact sheet mentions coal. Although critical mineral designations vary from agency to agency, these materials have not traditionally made the list. How investments will unfold remains to be seen, but the order unleashing financing and smoothing the regulatory path for coal production and gold mining speaks to how a broad definition of what makes a mineral “critical” will be a significant part of mining policy moving forward.
Domestic focus: The order is squarely focused on boosting US production and barely mentions projects abroad. Starting with bolstering US mining is on brand for the Trump administration and a necessary part of a broad-based approach to building a resilient supply chain. US mining has largely floundered due to price volatility and a lack of incentives for long-term investment. While policy is a critical tool to unlock domestic resources, the United States is not abundant in a considerable portion of the critical minerals needed for many important technologies, such as semiconductors, meaning international cooperation will still be integral to securing US critical mineral supply chains. The brief language saying that financing could be used for projects abroad hints that the administration knows this, even if it has not identified it as a major priority in the order.
DFC pivot: Centering the DFC as a main domestic investment tool is a remarkable flexing of executive power. The DFC was created to foster economic development in emerging markets by providing financing and technical support to foreign projects that serve US strategic interests—not finance domestic projects. However, its unique loan and investment authorities inarguably make it a clever candidate for quickly creating a domestic investment body that can boost mining in the United States. With DFC reauthorization on the horizon in October 2025, Congress will be forced to choose whether to codify this huge shift and give the DFC real teeth as a strategic investment tool both at home and abroad. Should the DFC be increasingly positioned as a tool to manage national wealth (note that the order calls to create a mineral production fund for the DFC to use) and supercharged with DPA authority, it may increasingly lay the groundwork for a possible full-fledged sovereign wealth fund.
Offtake support: Providing financing is important, but investment will only flow if companies are confident about the sustainability of their operations. Although the language is vague, the order does float possible offtake agreements at home and abroad. Such offtake agreements could make producers more willing to invest by establishing long-term contracts between a buyer and a seller that give producers confidence that their product will have a steady market at a fair price.
4. Will it be effective in achieving the administration’s goals?
The order is likely the first step of many. However, its success depends on whether investments—and mines and processing facilities—actually materialize. Many fear that in such an uncertain pricing environment, concessional financing won’t be enough to draw out broad private sector interest. Others highlight the United States’ inability to secure supply chains independently, since no authorities are powerful enough to change where mineral deposits are located.
Ultimately, robust supply chain diplomacy and close partnerships with allies and partners will be critical to US mineral security. Future executive orders must address this challenge, likely by also relying heavily on the DFC and other levers for commercial diplomacy to get strategic investments flowing. Notably, this isn’t the first time that a US administration has used DPA authority to try to boost critical mineral production in recent years. Trump tried it in 2020 to reduce dependence on Chinese rare earths, and the Biden administration followed suit in 2022 for electric vehicle minerals. Neither effort was particularly effective, though it’s worth noting that the long timelines for setting up mines and processing facilities make it hard to assess success too quickly. This points to a major limit to executive power here: Given the relatively short-term nature of four-year presidencies, companies remain hesitant to make multi-decade investments with uncertain returns. Just last week, Trump’s revocation of Biden-era DPA designations on green energy technology such as solar panels highlighted the instability of these support systems.
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Image: A view of the MP Materials rare earth open-pit mine in Mountain Pass, California, U.S. January 30, 2020. Picture taken January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Steve Marcus
