Critical Minerals on CrossGov.com

GAO Report on Critical Minerals, BLM Should Ensure Individuals and Businesses Meet Citizenship Requirements for Hardrock Mining Claims

Fri, 30 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Government Accountability Office examined the Bureau of Land Management’s process for mining claims on federal lands. The GAO found that the BLM rarely collected information to verify if individuals and businesses met citizenship requirements for these claims. This lack of verification meant the BLM generally did not know whether claimants were qualified to extract minerals from federal lands.

Mining Claim Citizenship Issues

The Bureau of Land Management administers mining claims for hardrock minerals on federal lands. U.S. mining laws require mining claimants to be U.S. citizens or business entities incorporated in a U.S. state or territory. Foreign entities cannot hold claims, but their subsidiaries can if incorporated in the U.S. BLM does not collect citizenship information from claimants. The agency does not document whether claimants meet U.S. citizenship requirements. GAO analyzed 15 mining claimants that appeared to be business entities. The analysis found evidence that seven of these claimants were not incorporated in the U.S. BLM lacked the necessary information to verify incorporation status.

GAO Finds the US Cannot Tell Who Owns the Critical Mineral Mines on Federal Land

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The federal government doesn’t know how much foreign money is behind the critical mineral mines on its own land, GAO reported on October 16. The 1872 Mining Law doesn’t ask, so the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service don’t collect it.

GAO released two reports that day, both on hardrock mining, which is where most US-mineable critical minerals come from. The first, GAO-27-108094, tried to measure foreign investment in mines on federal land. The second, GAO-27-108196, looked at whether BLM checks that mining claimants are allowed to hold claims at all. Both found the same gap. The agencies that manage the land collect almost nothing on who’s behind the claims.

US Government Takes Equity Stakes in Critical Minerals Companies: How Washington's Approach Compares With China and the EU

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In July 2025 the Pentagon became a major shareholder in the company that runs America’s only operating rare earth mine. The Defense Department bought $400 million of MP Materials preferred stock at $30.03 a share, with warrants, added a $150 million loan, and promised two things a market investor never would: a ten-year price floor of $110 per kilogram for the company’s neodymium-praseodymium oxide, and a ten-year commitment to buy all the output of a new magnet plant.

Project Vault Signs Glencore and Mercuria as the FORGE Critical Minerals Price Floor Agreement Stays Unsigned

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On September 23 Glencore and Mercuria became the first commodity traders to join Project Vault, the US critical minerals stockpile, committing $1 billion between them. Project Vault is backed by a $10 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank, the bank’s largest ever, plus about $2 billion of private money. It’s run by a private company, VaultCo, with EXIM as a non-voting board observer, and can buy any of the 60 minerals the US Geological Survey lists as critical. No purchases have been disclosed.

US-Japan Critical Minerals Pact Moves Toward Price Floors as China Squeezes Japan's Rare Earth Supply

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In March 2026, at a summit in Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced a US–Japan action plan on critical minerals. It’s meant to be the basis for a binding agreement among several countries, with minimum prices for minerals enforced at the border, coordinated stockpiles and joint financing for mining and processing projects. The same summit added a memorandum on deep-sea rare earths near Japan’s Minamitorishima island and a second tranche of Japanese investment, up to $73 billion, including 13 critical mineral supply chain projects.