The enormous copper deposits, deep in gentle hills near the top of Arizona, are over a mile underground. This could be one of the first major mining projects as the Trump administration is trying to boost domestic mineral production in the United States.
Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has focused on ensuring access to key minerals around the world, from Greenland to Ukraine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But now, mining executives want to see how and in the same way this administration will resolve to develop the vast U.S. domestic resources.
Rio Tinto, BHP, Antofagasta, Freeport-Mcmoran and Barrick Gold are among the companies poised to benefit from the White House’s pro mining policy.
Trump and Home Secretary Doug Burgham have broadly expressed support for domestic mining, but few concrete policies have yet to be made.
Burgham said Wednesday that the government hopes to speed up permits for the extraction industry and cut the deficit. “If we’re going to ‘drill, baby, drill,’ we have to ‘mine, mine, baby, mine,'” he told the CERA conference in Houston.
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According to people familiar with the plan, in the coming days, Trump is expected to sign an executive order on key minerals.
One of the biggest projects that could be approved during Trump’s term is the Rio Tinto resolution copper mine near the top Arizona, which can meet a quarter of US copper needs. The other is a twin metal copper mine owned by Antofagasta in Minnesota.
Analysis with benchmark minerals found that if all copper mines in the US pipeline, including resolution and twin metals, were developed, they would add about 2 million tonnes of copper annually to the copper supply.
Mark Bristow, chief executive of Barrick Gold, which operates several large gold mines in Nevada, said he is optimistic about our mining under Trump.
“When he was last in the White House, it took him a while to get to the mining side, but he definitely changed things,” Bristow said. “And we look forward to him doing something like that again in the mining industry.”
Barrick’s Mark Bristow says he is optimistic about our mining under Donald Trump ©Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg
The United States has a huge reserve of natural resources, but strict regulations and its legal system have made it difficult to open today’s mines.
According to a report released by S&P Global, it took an average of 29 years to allow new mines in the US, making it the second-longest meeting in the world behind Zambia.
“The United States has not achieved its mineral potential,” writes Frank Hoffman, associate director at S&P Global and author of the report. “It has a huge, strategically important mineral fund that is too long, ultimately too uncertain, and that its development is too long to attract the investment that our colleagues receive, and ultimately too uncertain.”
Under the Biden administration, the Inflation Reduction Act provided tax credits for certain mining projects and encouraged loans for important mineral projects.
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Some changes governments can make to accelerate domestic mining include issuing new rules in the National Environmental Policy Act, which govern how federal agencies make decisions, and supporting more mines on federal lands where they have historically been difficult to build.
The White House can also reverse the declaration of national monuments protecting the land from development and open them up for extraction.
“There’s certainly a bold vision to advance domestic mining,” said Morgan Basilian, a professor of public policy at the Colorado Mining School, adding that permit reform is important.
“In the last few decades, there have been very few new mines in the US, and most of them have been suspended under the last administration,” he added.
One of the only mines allowed recently was Stibnite Mine at Perpetua Resources, Idaho. It is an essential metal for defense and produces gold, similar to antimony used in alloys and semiconductors.
China, which manages most of the world’s antimony treatment, rang an alarm bell in Washington last year when it placed a curb on exports.
“The government has realized that we have so many manufacturing businesses off-shows. Jon Cherry, CEO of Perapetua, said:
The Perpetua mine, which was federally approved in January under the Biden administration, has acquired funds from the Department of Defense and has applied for loans from the U.S. Export and Import Bank.
Mines that produce important minerals, including copper, rare earths, and battery metals such as lithium and nickel, will likely enjoy the most support under the Trump administration, which views access to these minerals as a national security issue.
Domestic production of copper, essential for wiring, utility grids and electric vehicles, will be a major boost if approved by the resolution mine jointly owned by Rio Tinto and BHP.
The fate of the project rests on the Supreme Court, which will soon issue a verdict on religious freedom cases brought on by the Apache tribe. They oppose the mines to destroy the sacred site at Oak Flat in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest.
If the solution mine gets approval, domestic copper production will be a big boost ©Caitlin O’Hara/Reuters
If the Supreme Court verdict is favorable for the project, it will remove the big hurdles and the final permit will likely go further.
“There is growing awareness that under the Trump administration there is a need for domestic sources of US copper and other important materials,” said Katie Jackson, head of copper at Rio Tinto. “We can play an important role in helping to provide these materials.”
Another major shift under the Trump administration lies in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Minnesota’s wilderness area near the Canadian border.
The Biden administration imposed a 20-year ban on mining in the area. It is highly regarded for its scenic waterways. The legislature bill is trying to reverse that.
If the ban is lifted, it will benefit Antofagasta’s twin metal copper nickel mine. This is a nearby Newrange Copper-Nickel project located near the boundary water and jointly owned by Teck Resources and Glencore.
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area is currently protected by a 20-year mining ban, but could soon be reversed by Congressional Bill © Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images.
“The global copper shortage problem can be solved by the US, said Chris Rafemina, a mining analyst at Jeffries. “The problem is getting permission to develop new mines.”
Last month under Bulgham, the Home Office began reviewing national monuments and reviewing “all domestic mining and processing of non-fuel minerals to restore important US mineral control.”
But not all executives are so optimistic, some say they are tired of US policy, where governments repeatedly flip-flop every four years.
“There was a lot of talk and not a lot of action in the last go-around,” said Randy Smallwood, CEO of Wheelon Precious Metal. “It seemed like they were still finding ways to drag things out and drag them out.”
Additional report by Malcolm Moore.
