From a flurry of executive orders focused on bolstering domestic critical minerals production to trade policies that are rerouting supply chains away from China, securing reliable supplies of minerals vital to America's economy has been high on President Trump's list of priorities since his return to the Oval Office…During a March 4 address to Congress, Trump vowed to "take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA," a declaration that foreshadowed the "Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production" executive order he signed later that month…"Our national and economic security are now acutely threatened by our reliance upon hostile foreign powers' mineral production," the order states…Trump's directive addresses two core challenges: streamlining the multi-decade permitting process and providing the financial backing needed to establish resilient domestic supply chains shielded from foreign market manipulation…"Our lack of mineral security is our nation's Achilles' heel – a vulnerability that leaves us at the mercy of politically unstable and often adversarial nations for the basic building blocks of modern society," she said. "China knows this. Russia knows this. But, importantly, so do President Trump and his team. I appreciate their recognition of this major vulnerability and their immediate steps to tackle it."…China, which has strategically and methodically expanded its critical minerals production capacity over the past five decades, is now the world's largest and in some cases only supplier of these elements of innovation…During an address at the G7 Summit 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that China's "quasi-monopoly" on rare earths and other critical minerals poses a dual threat to Western nations – the power to cut off supplies of essential minerals, as well as dump artificially low-priced minerals into the markets to undermine efforts to establish competitive supply chains…The European Commission president's speech laid the foundation for uniting the Group of Seven nations behind the G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan aimed at breaking China's "pattern of dominance, dependency, and blackmail.” …A 2024 study by S&P Global found that it takes 29 years to develop a mine in the U.S. – second only to Zambia (34 years) for the longest time from mineral discovery to mine production…" …Federal financial support is a key piece of the domestic critical mineral supply chain puzzle. While this investment of taxpayer dollars must be large enough to help establish a critical minerals supply chain, complete with mines, refineries, and processing plants, it also must be strategically implemented to help ensure these links can survive the strains of markets dominated by China…One of the key mechanisms Trump plans to use to direct federal funding to domestic critical mineral projects is the Defense Production Act (DPA), a Korean War-era law that grants the president powers to expand supplies of materials critical to national security…In total, Beijing has restricted or banned the exports of 16 minerals critical to aerospace, automotive, energy, defense, and high-tech manufacturing…The impacts of China's rare earth export restrictions quickly reverberated through American manufacturing sectors…China's restrictions on tech metals such as bismuth, gallium, and germanium threaten to slow the development of AI data centers in the U.S…Officially named "One Big Beautiful Bill," the reconciliation bill allocates $150 billion for defense – a significant portion of which directly and indirectly impacts critical mineral supply chains. This includes $2.5 billion earmarked for domestic production and stockpiling of critical minerals and $500 million in loans and technical assistance for reliable critical mineral supply chains. A much larger pool of $20 billion is allocated to bolster munitions manufacturing and the defense industrial base, which will benefit critical minerals supply chains…In addition to critical mineral supply chain money flowing through the Pentagon, Trump's minerals order further empowers agencies such as the Department of Energy, the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., and the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) to back domestic projects with grants, loans, equity investments, and offtake agreements…A strategic stockpiling program could insulate domestic mining and refining companies from market manipulation and attract private sector funding for the burgeoning critical minerals sector in the U.S…Coupling federal funding with a strategic stockpiling program could further help insulate domestic producers from market manipulation by providing a price floor on critical minerals. By protecting the bottom lines of mining and refining companies, this mechanism would make America's burgeoning critical minerals sector attractive to the private sector investments vital to its long-term success.

Cobalt is undergoing a strategic transformation in 2025 as evolving battery chemistries, reshaped supply chains, technological advances, and stricter regulations shift its role in the energy transition. As market forces change, cobalt's importance is less about supply volume and more about resource security and geopolitical factors…The United States remains a marginal producer of cobalt…While U.S. cobalt mining is in a holding pattern, Canadian projects are supporting the development of North American electric vehicle battery supply chains…Meanwhile, Fortune Minerals' NICO project in the Northwest Territories is progressing toward construction, aiming to supply a vertically integrated mine-to-refinery supply chain for cobalt, gold, and bismuth…Much of the world's cobalt still comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite mounting pressure over labor practices and environmental concerns…While much of the attention has focused on DRC, Indonesia has quickly become a cobalt heavyweight, producing more than 28,000 metric tons in 2024…Meanwhile, China continues to dominate cobalt refining and trade, prompting Western countries to accelerate investment in alternative processing and sourcing…In the DRC, the introduction of new environmental rules and export controls in 2025 added fresh uncertainty and costs to the cobalt pipeline. A four-month export ban imposed in February aimed to stabilize prices, which had cratered amid oversupply. In June, the DRC government extended this export ban out to September…As a result, prices nearly doubled between February and May, rising from $5.60 to $11.80 per pound, according to S&P Global. As of June, cobalt sits at around $15/lb. In parallel, the DRC is implementing a new quota system in an effort to stabilize the market while preserving revenue…Despite its growing association with EVs, cobalt remains a staple of high-tech manufacturing, with over half of U.S. cobalt demand still coming from superalloys used in jet engines and defense systems, another quarter going into chemical applications, and the remainder being used in cemented carbides, magnets, and advanced electronics…These industrial uses underpin cobalt's strategic importance, particularly for U.S. aerospace and defense industries, regardless of battery trends…Still, batteries are driving the largest increases in demand, especially for EVs and grid storage…"The talk of engineering cobalt out of batteries has been going on for years," Fastmarkets' analyst Robert Searle said. "But the fact of the matter is that NCM chemistries are still expected to play a significant role in Western EV markets, and the DRC remains the major source of mined cobalt extracted by Western, non-Chinese companies."…Strategic stockpiling by the U.S., EU, and China is also adding another layer of complexity…As the race to electrify industries intensifies, attention is turning not only to how much cobalt can be secured, but also to how sustainably it can be sourced…This global pivot toward greener supply aligns with broader efforts in the U.S. to reduce import reliance and reinforce domestic control over strategic materials. With cobalt designated as critical to both energy security and national defense, federal agencies like the Department of Energy and Department of Defense have prioritized efforts to shore up supply chains at home…To further insulate supply from geopolitical risk, members of Congress have proposed building national cobalt stockpiles – a measure that underscores how deeply intertwined recycled, refined, and reserved materials have become in shaping a more resilient and self-directed cobalt future…With supply chain resilience now a priority for Western powers, cobalt is no longer just a commodity – it is a strategic asset.

In late 2023, China added bismuth to its growing list of export-restricted critical minerals, an action that came with little warning but enormous implications. Though not as headline-grabbing as gallium or graphite, bismuth is a metal with a surprising range of industrial and high-tech uses, many of which are increasingly essential to the U.S. defense sector and clean energy economy…Despite bismuth's importance to American manufacturing, the U.S. relies on imports for more than 95% of its supply…While bismuth markets are somewhat opaque, the USGS reports that most of the bismuth imported into the U.S. comes from China, which produces roughly 80% of the world's supply…China's bismuth restrictions are part of a broader strategy to tighten control over the exports of critical raw materials amid escalating global trade and technology disputes…The restrictions on bismuth – along with indium, molybdenum, tellurium, and tungsten – were in response to U.S. tariffs placed on Chinese imports by the Trump administration early in 2025…Despite its relatively small market, bismuth plays a significant role in high-tech and defense applications, where even modest supply disruptions can have a ripple effect across critical supply chains…In June, companies building AI data centers for "Magnificent Seven" tech companies – Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla – warned that their work could be hampered by a shortage of bismuth-based solder, which is essential to connecting temperature-sensitive electronics for data centers and other technologies…"Magnificent Seven companies – these are functional monopolies, with a combined market cap of over $17 trillion – but they can't build data centers or supercomputers without Chinese bismuth," said Inside China Host Kevin Walmsley, who reported that Chinese customs officials in Guangxi seized unlicensed bismuth being exported when alerted by soldering paste listed on the ship's manifest…Only two mines that produce bismuth as a primary metal have ever been developed – one in Bolivia, which has been shuttered since 1996, and another in China. However, the largest known bismuth deposit in the world remains undeveloped and is found in North America – offering a potential source of this critical metal as Western nations seek alternatives to China…This deposit at Fortune Minerals Ltd.'s NICO project in Canada's Northwest Territories hosts roughly 12% of the world's bismuth reserves…NICO also hosts significant quantities of cobalt, copper, and gold, which provides a naturally hedged supply of metals critical to economic growth, clean energy, and defense…Whether NICO is thought of as a critical minerals project hedged by gold or a gold project with critical mineral byproducts, Fortune's planned mining and refining project offers a reliable and sustainable supply of bismuth and cobalt that can weather price volatility and market manipulation…In 2024, Fortune received approximately C$17 million ($12 million) from the U.S. Department of Defense, Natural Resources Canada, and the Alberta Innovates Clean Resource Intake program to complete an updated feasibility study and secure the remaining permits required to accelerate its vertically integrated NICO project to a construction decision…Fortune's vertically integrated project has also attracted the attention of mining giant Rio Tinto, which is investigating the potential of blending bismuth- and cobalt-enriched byproducts from its world-class Kennecott copper mine in Utah with concentrates produced at NICO. This blend is expected to enhance the quantities of these critical metals recovered at the Alberta refinery…This partnership, coupled with continued support from Ottawa and Washington, could help bring some relief to the heartburn caused by severe Western shortages of bismuth as China continues to flex its critical minerals muscle.