President-elect Donald Trump should tap a new “minerals czar” in the White House, redirect unused Inflation Reduction Act dollars to support new mineral projects and streamline permitting for all new mines on federal land to counter China, according to a new report.
Pro-domestic energy nonprofit SAFE offered up a raft of recommendations for the incoming Trump administration and Congress to build up critical mineral supply chains that Chinese-backed companies have come to control. SAFE crafted the report over the past year with input from experts including private equity firms. The findings will inform SAFE’s ongoing work through 2027 with the State Department.
“Policy leaders and investors are looking at the critical minerals financing gap and working to address this challenge, but they have different views on markets, obstacles, and solutions,” said Abigail Hunter, SAFE’s executive director. “This report helps translate the issue for both sides and offers policy recommendations to bridge existing support mechanisms and strategic opportunities in the minerals space.”
Authors of the report said the Biden administration during the past four years put the focus on minerals tied to batteries, while leaving “policy gaps” for materials needed for advanced computing, artificial intelligence and military applications. Investments tied to Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, also offered less support for upstream projects like mining and processing that have long lead times, according to the paper.
“Even for battery minerals, U.S. policy has disproportionately emphasized downstream manufacturing and deployment over upstream extraction and midstream processing,” they wrote. “For example, the [IRA] spurred only five cents of private sector investment in critical minerals for every dollar invested in battery manufacturing.”
The report lays out steps the incoming Trump administration and a Republican-led Congress could take to address the investment gap. Authors estimated that investment of more than $30 billion by 2030 and public-private partnerships are needed to stand up secure critical minerals supply chains to meet demand and counter China.
Among the steps SAFE says the Trump administration should take to address that gap: Appoint a “mineral czar” to a newly launched critical mineral task force, which would operate under the National Security Council.
Mining companies have also called for a special czar to focus on minerals.
According to the report, the task force would work across federal agencies, report directly to the national security adviser and have direct authority over any Cabinet member to ensure they comply with key national security needs.
The report also calls on the incoming administration to use existing authority to target investments toward domestic projects and help the private mining sector better compete with China, whose “state-backed entities leverage low-cost financing and market distortions to dominate global supply chains.”
Specifically, federal officials should leverage existing authority — about $112 billion — within the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office to provide low-cost debt financing to critical mineral projects, according to the report. Congress should also reauthorize the Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III program and reallocate unused funds from canceled IRA programs, authors wrote.
Authors of the report also called on the Trump administration to maintain a key IRA tax incentive — a credit known as 45X for its place in the tax code — to support mineral projects facing market volatility while pushing through changes to prevent adversaries like China from accessing the credits. Congress should also reauthorize the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. and the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and strengthen the agencies’ ability to finance critical minerals projects, they wrote.
The report also calls for greater exploration and mapping, and calls on Congress to use unused IRA funds to launch a program to map the seabed floor for valuable minerals, establish regional processing and recycling hubs, and codify Biden-era programs like the Mineral Security Partnership and the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, with a focus on minerals.
Read the full story: “Trump should tap ‘mineral czar,’ repurpose IRA funds – report.“
