Trump Summons Mining Chiefs to White House

President Donald Trump will convene executives from some of the world's largest mining companies at the State Department on Friday in what the White House is billing as a historic summit on critical minerals. Among those invited are representatives from Rio Tinto Group, BHP Group and Freeport-McMoRan Inc., as well as participants from MP Materials Corp., USA Rare Earth Inc., Energy Fuels Inc., US Antimony Corp., Sunrise Energy Metals Ltd., and The Metals Company, according to people familiar with the planning.

The timing is not subtle. The White House needs critical minerals to replenish weapons stockpiles depleted during the Iran conflict and reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese supply chains. Minerals such as rare earths, tungsten, germanium and scandium are essential for producing missiles, fighter aircraft, armoured vehicles and other advanced defence systems. The meeting is expected to bring together more than 100 mining executives as the administration looks to strengthen domestic supplies of copper and other critical minerals.

The event is designed to showcase efforts to help spur critical minerals development and processing, with plans to unveil a handful of deals and memoranda of understanding, Bloomberg reported. Trump is set to be joined by leaders of his National Energy Dominance Council, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, executive director Jarrod Agen, as well as White House adviser David Copley. Representatives from all 14 accredited US mining schools have also been invited to the event, Reuters reported earlier.

Copper at record highs, supply at breaking point

The summit comes as copper futures push toward fresh all-time highs. Copper futures rose above $6.6 per pound, moving closer to fresh record highs as tightening global supply supported prices, with traders continuing to ramp up shipments to the US while drawing down inventories elsewhere ahead of an expected decision by the Trump administration on copper import tariffs. Industry data showed that more than 200,000 tons of copper arrived at US ports in July, marking the largest monthly inflow in over a decade.

Copper prices have surged to record highs this year, briefly exceeding USD 14,500 per tonne (intraday) in January 2026, driven by supply disruptions at several major mines and a build-up of US copper inventories due to tariff uncertainty, the International Energy Agency noted. Long disruptions at Grasberg in Indonesia, Kamoa-Kakula in the DRC and Chile's El Teniente stretched through the year, with some mines not expected to recover 2024 output levels until 2027 or later.

The structural problem runs deeper than short-term disruptions. Vale SA, the world's top iron ore producer, sees no evidence of war-related demand destruction in global metals markets, with worldwide demand for critical minerals "super-constructive," said chief executive officer Gustavo Pimenta in a Bloomberg Television interview in June. But even as the future looks bright, the sector has to do more to attract new sustainable investment capital, Pimenta told the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention in March.

Defense contractors scramble for domestic supply

The pressure on mining executives is coming from multiple directions. Lockheed Martin is in talks to buy supplies of two critical minerals from U.S. mines, as President Donald Trump pressures defense contractors to cut reliance on China, Reuters reported Monday. The world's largest defense contractor is negotiating with NioCorp Developments for supply of scandium, and Teck Resources and 5N Plus for supply of germanium, both of which are used in military equipment ranging from aircraft components to infrared sensors.

NioCorp Developments has reportedly signed a preliminary agreement with Lockheed to supply 15 metric tons of scandium annually, which would account for roughly one-quarter of the global demand for scandium, which the U.S. Geological Survey has pegged at around 60 metric tons per year and expected to increase.

The administration is backing words with policy. The US will ban exports of tungsten scrap and recycled battery materials from later this month, with suppliers of tungsten waste and black mass — shredded metals from recycled lithium-ion batteries — required to sell domestically, although they can apply for exemptions, according to a rule published on the Federal Register. The restriction will remain in place for one year, after Trump signed a measure last week that allows officials to restrict exports of industrial waste containing critical minerals and materials.

But the infrastructure to process those materials domestically barely exists. The U.S. does not have enough capacity to recycle all the scrap it produces, and several recyclers have also faced economic challenges in the past 18 months, including Li-Cycle and Ascend Elements, both of which filed for bankruptcy. "This ban is a band-aid," said Ryan McAdams, Amermin's CEO. "It's going to buy us more time, but we've got to start building up the infrastructure here stateside," adding that Amermin last year received an $11.5 million grant from the Energy Department but has not yet received the funds, and the company's commercial recycling facility would have been opened at least six months ago if it had access to those funds.

The gap between ambition and capacity is the unspoken tension at today's summit. Trump can convene the world's biggest miners. He can ban scrap exports and pressure Lockheed. But Chinese suppliers have long offered cheaper prices, and U.S. mining and processing capacity remains limited, with Chinese critical minerals prices cheaper than those from Western sources due to differences in mining practices, regulatory standards and other factors. Whether a few memoranda of understanding and a one-year export ban can close that gap — or whether the administration is willing to pay the premium required to build it — remains the question no one at the State Department is likely to answer today.