President Donald Trump on Friday announced billions of dollars in deals and investments in and around the mining industry, as well as more than $180 million in funding for mining schools.
Trump detailed several of the deals and investments at an event on American mining at the State Department on Friday.
The full list as provided by the White House is as follows:
The Department of War is investing over $85 million into Standard Bauxite to secure the supply chain of refractory-grade bauxite to support manufacturing of high-temperature-resistant materials used to make critical components for our warfighters and essential to the modern industrial economy.
The Department of War is investing $150 million into Niron Magnetics, a Minnesota company developing and producing 100% domestic, rare earth-free permanent magnets to support the defense industrial base and help eliminate dependency on foreign-produced rare earth magnets.
The Department of War is investing $1.4 billion into Sila Nanotechnologies, a California-based manufacturer, to expand production of silicon-carbon battery anodes and buildout a lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facility to strengthen the supply chains of satellite operations, unmanned aerial systems, and munitions.
The Department of War is investing $400 million into Sunrise Energy Metals to develop a full scandium value chain, including the world’s first primary scandium mine, to help secure the supply chain of high-heat aluminum alloys which are used in fighter jets and spacecraft.
The Export-Import Bank is investing $8 million into 5E Advanced Materials, a California-based company to develop a boron deposit, a key component of permanent magnets, semiconductors, and glass.
The Export-Import Bank is investing $25 million into Westwater Resources in Alabama to develop the Coosa Graphite Deposit to support domestic battery manufacturing.
The Export-Import Bank is investing $25 million into Global Advanced Materials in Pennsylvania for tantalum and niobium to support electronic, magnet, and steel production.
The Development Finance Corporation is matching a $4.8 million investment into Harena Rare Earths to develop a rare earth mine in Madagascar to secure vital inputs for American manufacturing, such as magnet metal and rare earths.
The Department of Energy is investing $100 million into America’s 14 mining schools to revitalize the next-generation workforce double the number of graduates with mining, minerals, and associated supply chain credentials.
The Department of War is investing over $80 million into three schools for major workforce development programs and technology innovation hubs to train the next generation of geologists, metallurgists, and mining engineers.
The Energy Department’s $100 million in funding for mining schools comes as the United States lags behind China’s annual output of mining engineering graduates.
“For years, mining schools and colleges that are essential to training the future leaders of this industry have been absolutely and sadly disappearing,” Trump said.
“Accredited mining programs in the United States now graduate less than 170 mining engineers each year, while China graduates more than 3,000 and half of our current mining workforce is set to retire within the next three years,” he added.
Trump said the $100 million in funding for accredited mining programs comes after schools requested $10 million in funding per year.
“I’m not doing that because I’m a nice person. I’m doing that because it’s great for the country. It’s great for the country, and it also helps a lot of people. And they want to mine,” he said.
