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The United States has initiated a historic scale-up of direct investments in critical minerals companies. With over $1 billion deployed in 2025 alone, Washington is redefining its relationship with the mining sector, no longer content with passive procurement but pursuing aggressive ownership in key mineral assets vital to national security and industrial competitiveness.
This move marks the United States' most significant government-led foray into the mining sector since World War II and is intended to counteract mounting supply chain vulnerabilities and geopolitical headwinds, most notably, China’s dominant position in the global minerals value chain.
Driven by a multi-pronged critical minerals strategy launched under the Biden administration, the United States is transitioning from a reactive supply-chain participant to a proactive strategic stakeholder. This strategy blends national defense objectives with industrial policy, designed to shore up American capacity in mining, refining, and processing of materials such as lithium, rare earths, cobalt, and nickel.
Jarrod Agen, executive director of the National Energy Dominance Council, emphasized the new normal: “Government equity stakes are now a core tool in securing America's industrial and defense base.” These investments reflect a growing consensus that securing critical mineral supply is a national imperative akin to energy independence goals of the past century.
In a decisive push to fortify the critical mineral supply chain throughout 2025, the U.S. government has deployed a multi-billion-dollar investment strategy targeting every stage of production, from domestic extraction to cross-border exploration and value-added manufacturing. The portfolio is anchored by significant upstream bets, including a July acquisition of a 15% stake in MP Materials for $400 million to support rare earth mining and a September restructuring of a $2.23 billion loan to Lithium Americas for lithium development.
To ensure these raw materials are processed domestically, the government simultaneously directed $670 million toward Vulcan Elements to expand magnet manufacturing capabilities, while also securing a North American foothold through a $35.6 million, 10% equity stake in Canadian explorer Trilogy Metals. This coordinated capital injection underscores a strategic shift toward full-spectrum resource independence, linking raw mineral security directly to industrial processing power.
The rationale behind these sizable equity investments stems from intensifying global instability and the concentration of processing power in the hands of a few nations. Key defence and technology applications such as jet engines, missile guidance systems, and radar technologies rely on rare earths and specialty materials that are frequently sourced or processed abroad, particularly in China.
The 2022 critical minerals risk assessment identified 60 essential elements whose supply disruptions could paralyze sectors generating over $3 trillion annually. The Biden administration has since tightened mandates for reducing mineral import dependency and reshoring key supply chain segments.
Melissa Sanderson, Director of American Rare Earths, summed up the challenge at the Reuters NEXT conference: “What we need is an integrated plan from rare earths to batteries, magnets to end-users. The U.S. must view this as an industrial vision, not just a raw material strategy.”
China currently controls more than 80% of the global rare earth processing market and nearly 70% of the world's refined nickel supply. Temporary export restrictions from Beijing have demonstrated how easily global supply chains can be weaponized.
KaLeigh Long, CEO of Westwin Elements, a company building the only U.S. nickel refinery, warned, “A price floor for nickel won’t fix market instability. We need the U.S. to pressure Indonesia, which now accounts for 60% of global nickel output, to limit production that has tanked global prices and compromised upstream supply investments.”Facing this asymmetric competition, government support is increasingly essential. Companies that receive federal backing gain not only capital but also regulatory acceleration, strategic security status, and coordination across federal agencies, advantages that purely private ventures can’t match.
Despite the ambitious scale, operational risks persist. Delays in loan reviews by the U.S. Export-Import Bank (ExIm) have hindered projects like Westwin’s nickel refinery and Perpetua’s gold-antimony initiative in Idaho. McKinsey Lyon of Perpetua described current efforts as a “frantic scramble” lacking a unified national plan.
Political cycles may disrupt continuity in funding, while federal agencies often lack the technical acumen to manage mining operations effectively. These concerns require preemptive design to preserve momentum and mitigate strategic drift.
To gauge whether this strategic transformation is succeeding, Washington will track several milestones:
Turning the U.S. from a mineral-importing titan to an integrated domestic powerhouse will take decades of sustained effort. Government equity investments are only the beginning. A nationally coordinated policy integrating federal loans, processing tax credits, export controls, and international partnerships is required for long-term resilience.
As global competition tightens, countries that control both upstream supply and downstream value-added capabilities will hold decisive economic and military advantages. With China investing heavily in Belt and Road mineral corridors and controlling critical processing infrastructure, the U.S. is responding with unprecedented resolve.