Ambler Mining District contains copper, cobalt, gallium needed to reduce China dependence.
The Trump administration on Monday announced the approval of a mining project in Alaska and took a stake in a Canadian company that will potentially develop portions of the project as it looks to reduce reliance on imports of critical minerals.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing the Ambler Road Project to proceed, which would build a 211-mile road to the remote Ambler Mining District. The area has large deposits of critical minerals, including copper, cobalt, gallium and germanium, among others.
The Trump administration also announced a partnership with Trilogy Metals, a Canadian company that intends to explore mining opportunities in the district. The U.S. government invested $35.6 million, which makes the government a 10% shareholder with warrants to purchase an additional 75% of the firm.
The White House said in a fact sheet that the “access road is crucial to unlocking critical minerals located in this currently-inaccessible area of Alaska, which has been characterized as one of the largest undeveloped copper-zinc mineral belts in the world and contains extensive deposits of copper, silver, gold, lead, cobalt, and other strategic metals.”
The move to allow the project to proceed after it was blocked over environmental concerns during the Biden administration comes as the Trump White House is looking to ramp up domestic production of critical minerals with the goal of reducing reliance on imports, particularly from countries like China that are U.S. adversaries.
Why do these minerals matter?
The minerals that could eventually be extracted from the Alaska project include several used in critical industries, with some of the minerals heavily or, in one case, exclusively imported from overseas.
Gallium is used in semiconductors as well as LED lighting, solar panels and transistors, among other products, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The agency notes that the U.S. imports all the gallium used domestically, although there is a U.S.-based refinery that recovers and recycles scrap and low-purity imported gallium. The leading sources of gallium imports are Japan, China, Germany and Canada per USGS.
Cobalt is used primarily in lithium-ion batteries that help power electric vehicles (EVs) as well as other electronics, energy storage systems and power tools. It’s also used to make superalloys that are used in applications like industrial gas turbines and jet engines due to their corrosion-resistant and high-temperature characteristics, the USGS explained.
76% of cobalt used in the U.S. is imported.
Zinc is used in a range of products, from metal to rubber and medicines. The USGS notes that it’s mainly used as a metal coating to protect iron and steel from corrosion in galvanized metal, as well as an alloy in bronze and brass.
73% of refined zinc is imported.
Germanium is a byproduct of zinc processing that is used in fiber optics, infrared night vision systems and polymerization catalysts – with demand rising dramatically in recent years per USGS.
The agency found in its March report that 50% of U.S. germanium supplies were domestic and 50% imported.
Copper is the third-most commonly used and consumed industrial metal behind iron and aluminum. About three-fourths of copper is used in electrical capacities such as power transmission and generation, wiring, telecommunications and electronic products.
A little more than half, or 55%, of refined U.S. copper supplies were sourced domestically, while 45% is imported.