President Donald Trump on Friday unveiled more than $3 billion in federal backing for a slew of mining and mineral processing projects at an event with executives at the State Department.
The event marks yet another expansion of the Trump administration’s mineral spending spree that’s drawn widespread praise across an industry struggling to gain a foothold against Beijing’s dominance of critical minerals supply chains. But it’s also triggered calls for more scrutiny on Capitol Hill — Trump at the event said his administration has approved more than 160 deals worth nearly $40 billion.
“We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars in bringing your industry back,” Trump said at the event attended by mining executives. “We’re not doing you favors. We’re doing ourselves favors. We need your industry.”
The Pentagon, Trump said, is awarding a $1.4 billion loan to Sila Nanotechnologies to expand production of next-generation battery material in Washington state. Sila launched commercial production last fall at the nation’s first automotive-scale facility toproduce silicon anode material, a replacement for graphite in the batteries of electric vehicles and other modern technologies.
