The Trump administration plans more "historic deals" with the U.S. mining sector to boost production of critical minerals for the national defense and high-tech sectors, a senior official said on Monday…Earlier this year, the administration took equity stakes in MP Materials, Lithium Americas, and Trilogy Metals…."What we want to see is the ability for the U.S. to not be reliant on any adversary out there or any other foreign entity, that we control our own destiny when it comes to our supply chain and our critical minerals," Jarrod Agen, executive director of the White House's National Energy Dominance Council, said on Monday…"You're going to see throughout this administration historic deals when it comes to critical minerals, historic partnerships with the private sector, and then really a revitalization of mining in this country," Agen told a critical minerals conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. The remarks were webcast.

Trading of the cobalt metal contract on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange surpassed 40,000 lots in January-November 2025 — a new record — according to the latest data from the exchange…The contract, based on a Fastmarkets price, launched five years ago, on December 14, 2020, and has grown since its launch, recording one of the highest volume weeks in its history in the run up to the anniversary…Since the CME contract began, cobalt has experienced large changes to its supply and demand statistics, with the price broaching $40 per lb in mid 2022 before falling to $9.50 per lb in early 2025, with market participants making use of the financially-settled contracts to hedge and trade the uncertainty…Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have looked to Fastmarkets’ cobalt derivative contracts to hedge their battery purchasing schedules for EV production, with the CME contracts currently stretching out to December 2029….“Over the past half decade, the cobalt contract has continued to grow from strength to strength, providing a usable financial hedging instrument for the global market, underpinned by Fastmarkets’ benchmark cobalt price. As uncertainty and volatility continue to dominate the market, we are happy to see that customers are increasingly turning to the CME cobalt contract to manage their price risk,” Przemek Koralewski, global head of market development at Fastmarkets, said…The CME cobalt metal futures forward curve remains in a firm contango next year, with the January contract last settling at $26.30 per lb on Friday December 12, while the December 2025 contract settled at $24.26 per lb…Fastmarkets assessed cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam at $23.75-24.90 per lb on Monday December 15, flat from the previous assessment on Friday but up from $23.70-24.85 per lb on Thursday December 11.

Ford Motor said on Monday it will take a $19.5 billion writedown and is killing several electric-vehicle models, in the most dramatic example yet of the auto industry's retreat from battery-powered models in response to the Trump administration's policies and weakening EV demand…Ford said it will pivot hard into gas and hybrid models, and eventually hire thousands of workers, even though there will be some layoffs at a jointly owned Kentucky battery plant in the near term. The company expects its global mix of hybrids, extended-range EVs and pure EVs to reach 50% by 2030, from 17% today…Ford’s shift reflects the auto industry’s response to waning demand for battery-powered models, after car companies plowed hundreds of billions of dollars into EV investments early this decade. The outlook for electrics dimmed significantly this year as U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies yanked federal support for EVs and eased tailpipe-emissions rules, which could encourage carmakers to sell more gas-powered cars…U.S. sales of electric vehicles fell about 40% in November, following the September 30 expiration of a $7,500 consumer tax credit, which had been in place for more than 15 years to stoke demand. The Trump administration also included in the massive tax and spending bill that passed in July a freeze on fines that automakers pay for violating fuel-economy regulations…Ford effectively killed the entirety of its second-generation of EV models with Monday’s announcement. For its future EV lineup, the company is shifting focus to more affordable EV models, conceived by a so-called skunkworks team in California. Ford plans to price the first model from that team at about $30,000 and begin sales in 2027. Ford is building this midsize EV truck at its Louisville plant…Like Ford, many traditional automakers are rotating back to gas and hybrid models, while narrowing their EV offerings to shore up losses in that space…That could leave pure-play EV makers like Tesla and Rivian with an opportunity to take market share, albeit from a smaller total, analysts have said.

A rebel leader in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo says his fighters will withdraw from a key city at the request of the US…Corneille Nangaa's statement came days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the capture of Uvira by rebel forces violated a peace deal, and the US would "take action to ensure promises made to the President [Donald Trump] are kept"…Nangaa said that rebel forces would pull out of the city as a "trust-building measure"…The US accuses Rwanda of backing the rebels. Rwanda denies the allegation, but its President, Paul Kagame, signed a peace accord on 4 December with his DR Congo counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi, at a ceremony in Washington hosted by Trump….Nangaa is the coordinator of the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), a coalition of rebel groups. It includes the M23, the most powerful force that European countries, along with the US, say is backed by Rwanda…The Trump administration hopes that its peace initiative will work and pave the way for US companies to boost their investments in the resource-rich region…The US State Department said in 2023 that DR Congo had an estimated $25tn (£21.2tn) in mineral reserves. This included cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese and tantalum - needed to make the electronic components used in computers, electric vehicles, mobile phones, wind turbines and military hardware.