For Trump Administration, Policy Often Involves a Hunt for Minerals

DEEP DIVE — Over the past week, the Trump administration took two steps involving the pursuit of critical and rare earth minerals: it issued an executive order to boost domestic mining and production, and it moved to reopen with talks with Ukraine on a framework agreement for joint development of Ukraine’s trove of critical minerals. The Ukraine deal – which had been initially presented as an element of a broader peace agreement to end or at least pause the war in Ukraine, now appears to be part of a broader U.S. goal: to safeguard the supply chain of a range of mineral resources that is currently dominated by China. 

On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to work for an immediate boost in U.S. minerals production, and said “overbearing Federal regulation” had stalled such efforts in the past. The directive calls for more federal land with mineral reserves to be cleared for mining, and the use of Defense Production Act authorities to expedite the process. The order emphasizes national security concerns and the need to secure critical mineral supply chains, for everything from electric vehicles to smart phones to high-end weapons for the U.S. military.