Following on the heels of the US-Australia minerals agreement, The US International Development Finance Corp. has now established a new fund to invest in critical minerals alongside Orion Resource Partners and Abu Dhabi's ADQ, as the Trump administration seeks to challenge China's mineral dominance.
Called the Orion Critical Mineral Consortium, the three partners have made initial capital commitments totaling $1.8 billion and are targeting an eventual pool of $5 billion.
And after 9 years of permitting, Perpetua Resources has now broken ground at its $1.3 billion Stibnite gold-antimony project in central Idaho.
CEO Jon Cherry said, "As America's answer to China's antimony export bans, we are focused on swiftly and safely bringing our antimony and gold project into development."
And a potential congressional permitting deal is facing new headwinds. The Trump administration's opposition to permitted offshore wind projects is jeopardizing prospects for a long-sought bipartisan permitting deal according to Politico.
Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island warned Wednesday that unless the administration stops its attacks on wind power "good luck with the trust required for a permitting deal."
And as permitting reform hangs in the balance, the nation's deteriorating grid reliability is now "a five-alarm fire," according to Jim Robb, CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp., the nation's grid reliability watchdog.
