The Secretary of the US Interior Department Doug Burgum looks at Ceraweek in Houston, Texas, United States, March 12, 2025.
Kaylee Greenlee | Reuters
Oklahoma City – The Trump administration plans to invest in companies that operate and treat critical minerals in order to end imports from imports from countries, including China, said interior secretary Doug Burgum this week.
“We should take part of our record and make investments,” said Burgum on Wednesday evening during a conference organized by the Hamm Institute for American Energy. “The United States may need to make an” investment in stocks in each of these companies which faces China in critical minerals, “he said.
China throws minerals in international markets, collapses prices and making American businesses difficult to compete, said Burgum. “You are competing against state capital because China chooses them strategically as areas in which they want to invest,” said Burgum.
The United States could use a vehicle as a sovereign fund to invest in national minors focused on the extraction and treatment of critical minerals, he said. “Why would the richest country in the world not have the greatest sovereign fund,” said the interior secretary.
Reprisal export controls
Beijing earlier this month imposed export controls on rare earth elements – a subset of critical minerals – in retaliation for President Donald Trump's decision to increase the prices on goods made in China. Rare land elements are used in key industries, including defense, energy and cars. The United States imported 80% of the rare earths it used in 2024, according to the US Geological Survey. About 70% of imports of rare land from us came from China in 2023.
“We have to come back to the match,” said Burgum, referring to the mining. “It is not only a drill, baby, forest. It is mine, baby, mine. If we do not do this as a country, we will not succeed. We will literally be at the mercy of others that control our supply chains.”
The Trump administration also plans a sovereign risk insurance fund to protect companies that invest in approved projects against the evolution of political winds in Washington, he said. If a future president cancels a project through executive Fiat, companies would be reimbursed by the fund, said Burgum.
“Think about it as an insurance market that would be supported by the federal government,” said Burgum. “You have to pass a check. There must be a financial cost if you want to make these decisions where you destroy our record or destroy the opportunity of a business,” he said.
The United States must store key critical minerals thanks to a mechanism similar to the strategic oil reserve, said Burgum. When China throws minerals on the world markets and prices fall, the United States should buy these minerals and store them, he said.
“These three things would put us in the game around critical minerals-storage, sovereign risk insurance and the ability to take a capital post. We are working on these three,” he said.
