Continuing its multipronged campaign to save the American economy and military from dependence on the People’s Republic of China for critical minerals, the Trump administration has announced around $3 billion in new subsidies for mining and production, worker training, and other critical-minerals or rare-earths projects at a meeting with industry executives (Bloomberg, August 7, 2026).
Trump said the investments included a $1.4 billion loan agreement with Sila Nanotechnologies Inc. from the Defense Department’s Office of Strategic Capital. Other investments include $400 million by the Pentagon to expand production in Australia of scandium, which is critical to aerospace and defense industries, and $150 million with Niron Magnetics Inc., a Minnesota rare-earths firm.
The Export-Import Bank is also working to provide more than $1 billion in financing for Ivanhoe Electric Inc.’s Santa Cruz copper project in Arizona, along with a $25 million investment to launch a graphite mine project in Alabama.
The president also hailed plans to spend over $180 million to bolster educational programs for the mining industry, saying it would “train the next generation of American miners.”
Trump said his efforts would ensure the US “is never again reliant on hostile foreign nations for the resources our country needs to dominate in the future.”
The new subsidies seem to be in addition to $10 billion already pledged to reinvigorate U.S. mining and processing of critical minerals, including a $400 million stake in MP Materials, the only U.S. producer of rare earths.
In addition to the domestic subsidies, the administration has signed bilateral agreements with Japan, Australia, Mexico and others to toughen up supply chains of critical minerals and thereby reduce dependence on the People’s Republic of China; participated in multilateral coalitions seeking to protect markets for critical minerals from the PRC; announced the domestic Project Vault to create a reserve of critical minerals as insurance against disruptions; and pursued regulatory reform to make it easier to establish and exploit mines in the United States.
