NMA Mining Minute

AI, data centers, processors. The big data moment is built on a foundation provided by extraordinary physical infrastructure. Few realize how large, or the materials required to make it happen. There are tens of thousands to potentially millions of specialized semiconductor chips in new data centers. To make just one of these chips requires a dizzying variety of minerals. Silicon, Gallium, Germanium, Palladium, Tungsten, Cobalt, Gold and copper are just some of minerals needed for a single chip. And of course it's not just about chips. Data centers themselves require vast amounts of metal for their construction, particularly for their power networks, circuit boards and cooling systems. A study of a $500 million Microsoft data center in Chicago found it used nearly 2,200 tons of copper. And that data center is now dwarfed by a new class of facilities. The bottom line is this: As the U.S. confronts the AI industrial arms race, getting our minerals and mining policy right, is simply nonnegotiable. That's your mining minute for this morning. Tune in for more from NMA TV.

The Trump administration yesterday repealed of the Obama-era endangerment finding, which says that greenhouse gases harm human health, served as the legal and scientific justification for most federal rules that combat climate change. In repealing the finding, according to reporting, the EPA argues that the Clean Air Act only empowers the agency to regulate pollutants that pose a direct danger to the public from exposure and that U.S. sectors like new vehicles contribute so little to global warming that they don't warrant regulation. The National Energy Dominance Council celebrated its one year anniversary yesterday and, in doing so, its chair Interior Secretary Doug Burgum highlighted the council's priorities: which are to help projects related to critical minerals and energy get built.  "If you have not talked to [the dominance council], you need to," said Burgum. Finally, The Trump administration is reportedly looking at how Venezuela's minerals can present economic opportunity for the country. While it has known deposits of gold, bauxite, and other critical minerals it lacks the infrastructure or mapping to have a clear view on how to take advantage of those resources. The administration hopes that "American and other aligned companies have fair access to the Venezuelan market will help the economy recover from a decade of neglect."

As we previewed yesterday, President Trump hosted members of the coal industry at the White House where he received an award from the Washington Coal Club, signed an executive order directing the Department of War to buy electricity from coal plants, and announced funding for coal plant upgrades.  Nickel prices are up again today after Indonesia ordered the world's largest nickel mine to cut output. It's a move aimed at tightening global supply and lifting prices. Finally, on Capitol Hill, the House approved the "Securing America's Critical Minerals Supply Act," which defines all energy sector minerals that are vulnerable to supply chain disruptions as "critical energy resources," and directs DOE to study way to secure those supply chains. Also in the House, the House Natural Resources Committee approved an amended version of the "Critical Mineral Consistency Act," which is meant to align the USGS list of critical minerals with the Department of Energy's list.

President Trump today welcomes the coal industry—including members of the National Mining Association—back to the White House where he will receive an award from the Washington Coal Club and will reportedly make a number of announcements, including an executive order concerning the Department of War buying electricity from coal plants and funding awards to five coal plants for facilities upgrades. We'll have more on that event for you tomorrow. The nation's largest federal utility, Tennessee Valley Authority, may extend the life of coal units at two of its largest power plants. A vote is expected at its board of directors meeting as soon as today. Finally, the U.S. is reportedly using offtake deals and state-backed to edge out China in securing African copper, cobalt and other minerals. The US government is reportedly focusing on Zambia, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A new report by Energy Ventures Analysis, released yesterday, found that, in 2025, coal generation served as an important buffer against energy inflation due to rising natural gas prices, electricity demand growth and infrastructure-related costs. Coal generation delivered between $30 and $40 billion in total savings, lowering Americans' power bills an average of $150 per household. The Trump administration is planning this week to repeal the 2009 "endangerment finding," which is a finding that serves as the legal basis for federal greenhouse-gas regulation. The final rule will reportedly remove the regulatory requirements around federal greenhouse-gas emission standards for motor vehicles. The rule won't apply to power plants but it could provide the rationale for rolling back regulations that do. Finally, looking at the administration's plans to invest in mineral assets abroad, unrest in Pakistan's largest mineral-rich province is highlighting the challenges of doing so. In December, the administration said it would invest $1.25 billion in the region as part of its strategy to counter China's global minerals dominance, but recent militant attacks on civilian and government targets in at least nine towns have now made efforts to extract minerals there shaky at best. Just one more reason to support domestic mining, here at home.

The USGS on Friday released its annual Mineral Commodity Summaries report, which shows that, when it comes to reducing China's hold on our mineral supply chains, it's harder than you might think. The numbers showed our import dependence—the amount of minerals we need to import to meet the country's mineral needs—worsened last year. The U.S. is now 100 percent import reliant for 16 minerals—that's up from 15 the year prior—and is reliant on imports for more than one-half of our consumption for 54 nonfuel mineral commodities, that number is up from 46 the year prior. The number show the urgent need to do more to support domestic mining projects. And speaking of the people who can do more to support domestic mining, on Capitol Hill there will be a range of mining-related matters up for consideration this week.  In the Senate, Representative Stauber's Congressional Review Act resolution aimed at overturning the Biden administration's Minnesota Mining ban could get a vote.  And, in the House, we should see a vote on legislation focused on energy supply chains. The "Securing America's Critical Minerals Supply Act," directs the Department of Energy to conduct an ongoing assessment of the resources required for our energy sector.

It seems that everyone was making deals in Washington this week with countries including the UAE, the UK, Argentina and the Philippines each issuing separate announcements that they had signed deals with the United States to secure the supply and processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths during this week's meetings in Washington. Amidst all of this dealmaking, the New York Times today has an opinion piece on the global rush to secure rare earths, pointing out that they're actually not so rare. The piece argues that the United States should not only increase production at its existing mines, but also build out domestic capacity for processing critical minerals while also focusing on recycling rare earths from mine waste and through other techniques. The USGS will later today release its annual Mineral Commodity Summaries report, which gives us a glimpse each year into just how import reliant US supply chains are on foreign suppliers for the minerals we need.  Last year's report found that the US was 100 percent import reliant for 15 minerals and more than one-half import reliant for 46 non-fuel minerals. We'll see if the focus on building up our supply chains with domestic product has put a dent in those numbers this year.

Coming out of yesterday's meetings in Washington, which brought together representatives from more than 50 countries to discuss minerals, Vice President JD Vance unveiled plans to create a trade bloc for critical minerals, specifically proposing coordinated price floors. In making the proposal, Vance said, "We want to eliminate that problem of people flooding into our markets with cheap critical minerals to undercut our domestic manufacturers…We will establish reference prices for critical minerals at each stage of production," He said. Also coming out of yesterday's meetings, the U.S. has agreed to work with Japan, Mexico and the European Union on the development of critical minerals to counter China's hold on the world's mineral supply chains. A memorandum of understanding is expected within the next 30 days which will detail how the countries will work together to support projects in mining, refining, processing and recycling. Finally, yesterday in the House, a bipartisan group of lawmakers came together to pass key legislation from Rep. Pete Stauber – the "Critical Mineral Dominance Act.  With so much work done by the administration over the last year to support domestic mining projects, the bill would codify certain provisions of President Trump's executive orders to increase domestic mining and processing.

The Associated Press reports on China's massive build out of coal power in 2025, noting that more than 50 large coal units were commissioned in 2025, up from less than 20 a year over the previous decade. Last year China commissioned more coal power capacity than India did over the entire past decade. The move is part of the country's efforts to stay ahead of massive demand coming from its efforts to be a global leader in artificial intelligence and manufacturing. Today Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host the inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial at the Department of State here in Washington. Delegations from over 50 nations to advance collective efforts to strengthen and diversify critical minerals supply chains. It will be interesting to see what comes out of those meetings. And as they discuss minerals strategy on a global level, an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal compares the Trump administration's new Project Vault minerals effort, which creates a new U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, to the strategy that originally placed China at the top of the world's mineral supply chains pointing out the similarities between the two.

The U.S. is now building a strategic minerals reserve. President Trump on Monday rolled out a $12 billion initiative, called operation Vault, to establish domestic stockpiles of strategic minerals, as the US looks to defang China's mineral weapon. The reserve will be financed by $1.67 billion in private funds and a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank. EXIM said that the reserve will be a public-private partnership that will store essential raw materials in facilities across the U.S. The strategic reserve is designed to bolster civilian manufacturing needs and already involves a host of companies, including General Motors, Stellantis, Google and Boeing, among others. Three commodity trading houses will handle purchases of raw materials to fill the stockpile. EXIM noted that, "Project Vault is designed to support domestic manufacturers from supply shocks, support U.S. production and processing of critical raw materials, and strength America's critical minerals sector." And in far less welcome news, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow yesterday. — buckle up for six more weeks of winter. As biting cold continues, grid operators, utilities and the Department of Energy have been working overtime to keep the power flowing. Just this past weekend, the Energy Department issued seven emergency orders, and extended another five, to mitigate the risk of blackouts.

The bitter cold persists and the U.S. grid remains under immense strain. From the Carolinas to Northern Florida, utilities are asking customers to reduce power consumption today for fear demand overwhelms supply. This comes as President Trump's reshuffled Federal Energy Regulatory Commission makes their first appearance before congressional lawmakers this week. Electricity reliability will be in the spotlight. And turning to metals markets, according to The Wall Street Journal, Friday saw the worst day for gold and silver since 1980. The selloff came as reports broke that President Trump had picked former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Fed chair. Seen as tough on inflation, Warsh's pick propelled the dollar to its strongest day in months and sent investors fleeing safe harbors in precious metals. And this week in Washington, the Trump administration is convening a Mining Ministerial with dozens of foreign ministers. Bloomberg reports the US will use the meeting to seek consensus with allies on a pricing mechanism to help insulate rare earth mineral producers and build supply outside of China's control.

At a cabinet meeting yesterday, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright briefed President Trump on the vital role coal has played in keeping the lights on across the country over the past week. And speaking of reliability, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation yesterday issued its 2026 Long-Term Reliability Assessment, which found that by 2029, nearly two-thirds of the country will move into a "high risk" category, with power reserves dropping below safety margins, bringing a risk of power shortages.  The national Mining Association's CEO Rich Nolan commented on the report saying, "This assessment should put to bed any debate about the need to keep America's coal plants running–the era of energy subtraction must permanently be put in the rearview mirror." And Australia is today responding to the reports from yesterday that the US is backing away from price floors for Minerals. It says it will support its critical mineral supply chains with its Resources Minister saying the news, quote, "won't stop Australia (from) pursuing our critical minerals strategic reserve programme to make sure Australia has access to the resources it needs to build a future made in Australia." She continued, saying, quote, "We'll have a number of mechanisms, a floor price will be one through offtake agreements."

The story of the week continues to be the brutal cold spell that has settled across much of the U.S., putting added strain on a grid that is already stretched thin. In emergency orders issued in the past several days, Energy Secretary Chris Wright ordered plants to run without limits "to mitigate blackouts." This is in addition to earlier orders DOE issued to keep several coal plants online that were set to prematurely retire. In the PJM region, which covers 13 states and Washington, D.C., coal, natural gas and nuclear have accounted for 83% of power around midday yesterday. The takeaway? We can't afford to prematurely retire well-operating plants. It's a lesson Germany is learning the hard way. After an extensive and rapid expansion into renewables and many commitments to turn away from its coal plants, many of those same plants are now back in action, profitable, and ramping up output this month during a particularly cold spell.  The plants are now even cheaper to run than gas-fired generators, and are playing a key role in keeping the lights on when demand peaks. Finally, in the metals markets, Citigroup analysts expect spot silver prices to hit a record $150 an ounce within the next three months, continuing a record breaking run that has seen prices jump nearly 50% in January. In making its predictions, analysts said, "Silver is behaving like 'gold squared' or 'gold on steroids'."

Last week Congressman Pete Stauber led the passage in the House of a key Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to reverse the prior administration's unfounded withdrawal of more than 225,000 acres of federal lands from mining in Northern Minnesota. The resolution still needs to pass the Senate and be signed by the President. Our country is currently 100 percent import reliant for 15 minerals that our supply chains absolutely need—and we don't have to be. We have these minerals right here at home, but our access is obstructed by outdated policies that don't reflect the modern world. In fact, this specific mining ban was enacted in an area of the United States that contains significant mineral deposits including more than 90 percent of the nation's deposits of nickel and cobalt, and about a third of our nation's copper. We are in the most mineral intensive time in history. And we have some of the most mineral rich lands in the world. Fortunately, the U.S. is home to the world's top environmental, labor and safety regulations, making this the absolute best place to secure the minerals we need for everything from data center construction to power grid transmission upgrades, defense systems to high tech applications. We urge the Senate to join the House in taking the steps necessary to re-risk our supply chains, chip away at China's mineral dominance, and create the potential for a lot of high-quality American jobs in Minnesota and beyond.

The first major winter storm of 2026 is here, with tens-of-millions of Americans across a 2,000 mile stretch of the country affected. And no surprise, the nation's shaky supply of power is once again under the microscope. The challenges grid operators are facing in keeping the power flowing have been years in the making. Deeply unwise decisions to tear down essential power plants – namely coal capacity – have left the nation short of dispatchable power—and remarkably unprepared for rapidly rising power demand from electrification and the data center boom. The nation's grid reliability regulators have repeatedly warned that major, multistate storms and plunging temperatures now pose a severe threat to our supply of power. Regional grids lean on each other to navigate peak demand and power shortages. But when multiple grids fall short of power, there is no cavalry to ride to the rescue. Of course, that wasn't always the case. There's a very good reason the Trump administration has zeroed in on keeping coal power plants on the grid and stopping plant retirements. Time and again, during winter emergencies, coal generation has surged power when other sources of electricity haven't been able to. As the nation faces rising power prices – up 40% since 2020 – increased natural gas price volatility and a grid reliability crisis, there's no threading the affordability and reliability needle without the coal fleet.

The massive storm expected this weekend is still approaching but high natural gas prices have already arrived. Throughout the week, prices have surged anywhere between 25 and 75 percent higher than the previous week. As grids across the country brace for major impacts to tens of millions of Americans, the importance of a balanced, divers fuel supply becomes all the more important in managing price shocks and keeping the lights on. Coal demand in Southeast Asia is growing at a faster pace than anywhere else in the world, with demand expected to rise by more than 4 percent a year through the end of the decade, according to the International Energy Agency report. The numbers reflect the global reality around rising energy demands and the need for secure, reliable, affordable electricity. And yesterday, during a Natural Resources Subcommittee hearing on deep sea mining, the partisan divide around new efforts to fast-track new seabed mining projects was evident. It's clearly an issue that will get a deeper look on the Hill and beyond.

The House—following the steadfast leadership of Rep. Pete Stauber—yesterday passed legislation Wednesday that would reverse a Biden ban on mining on more than 225,000 acres of public lands in Minnesota. The important measure now moves to the Senate for action. Yesterday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a revision to regulations under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act that would streamline the seabed mining permitting process. The existing process requires a two-step sequential application process, where an applicant first applies for an exploration license and then applies for the commercial recovery permit. The new rules, which take effect immediately, consolidate these applications into a single, shorter review. Finally, as the pundits and analysts ponder what is part of the potential Greenland framework President Trump says has been agreed, expect to hear a lot more about that country's mineral resources, and the challenges in accessing them.

OpenAI is following Microsoft's lead and is pledging to pay higher electricity prices for the data centers it is building across the U.S. Microsoft's similar commitment was praised by President Trump. The pledges come amidst community backlashes against data centers are building across the country. The Democratic Republic of Congo has given the US government a list of manganese, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium projects for U.S. investors to consider as part of a minerals partnership. US officials received the list last week. And in dealmaking news, leading U.S. uranium group Energy Fuels has agreed to acquire Australian Strategic Materials to create a "mines-to-metal" leader in the race to build a secure supply chains outside of China for rare earths.

As President Trump threatens new tariffs on Europe stemming from his desire to take over Greenland, investors pushed gold and silver prices to new highs. West Virgina is getting an new $850 million advanced coal reformation facility, a project expected to create more than 2,000 construction jobs and more than 200 permanent positions once the plant is operational. The facility is expected to expand commercial uses of coal beyond traditional electricity generation and steelmaking, converting it into fuels, fertilizers and industrial carbon products with no waste. And this week, the House is going to look at the controversial topic of seabed mining. The Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Thursday will examine regulatory barriers to offshore mining.

Let's talk about spice metals. And no, this isn't the start of a new NMA cooking show. But spice metals– like seasoning in the kitchen – are elements where just a little bit, even tiny amounts, can have a transformative impact. Andy Home, metals columnist for Reuters, recently had a great example with semiconductors. As he observed, silicon has been the wafer material of choice for semiconductors for decades but is close to its technical limits when it comes to advanced computing. But toss in just a pinch of gallium and germanium, and the chip's capacity rises exponentially. Or take antimony. Even a tiny amount can dramatically increase the hardness and durability of alloys. There's a reason why it's used in more than 500 munitions. That transformative impact is true for a wide variety of metals. Everything from scandium and vanadium to tellurium, boron and molybdenum. These metals – often used almost in immeasurable quantities -- have transformed our economy, national security and the very way we live--even if many of us have never heard of them. Their importance underscores a new reality: all minerals are now critical in one way or another. Or said another way, in the technology age, mining is critical.