US minerals projects seek 'industrial vision' from Washington to compete with China

The push underscores how Washington's surging support this year for the sector - including taking stakes in mining companies and guaranteeing a price floor for the only US rare earths mine - is falling short of what industry leaders say is needed amid intense Chinese competition.

Executives from Perpetua Resources, American Rare Earths and Westwin Elements told the Reuters NEXT conference in New York that the US government should release a comprehensive minerals plan, pressure Indonesia to trim nickel production, and speed up the time for the US Export-Import Bank and other agencies to approve loan funding, among other steps.

"We need an industrial vision," said Melissa Sanderson, a director at American Rare Earths, which is working to build a rare earths mine in Wyoming.

"What we need is an integrated plan for building the critical minerals supply chain with all of the myriad inputs, antimony, nickel, copper, rare earths and how that flows through to the battery makers, to the magnet manufacturers, to the various end-users."

KaLeigh Long, CEO of privately held Westwin, which is building the only US nickel refinery, is asking the Trump administration to pressure Indonesia to limit its nickel output, which has surged in the past two years to roughly 60% of global supply and dragged down nickel prices CMNI3 nearly 50% as a result.

That forced BHP and others to shutter their operations and has posed a challenge for Westwin as it aims to secure financing to refine 34 000 metric tons of nickel per year in Oklahoma by 2030.

"I'm really urging the US government to think simple," Long said. "In terms of nickel, let's get a quota on Indonesian production. You do that, and I can almost promise you that overnight you will see a cure in the nickel price."

Long said a price floor for nickel from Washington would be impractical given the large size of the market for that metal and pushed for limits on Indonesia's output instead.

"A price floor is kind of a waste of our energy right now," she said. "I don't see that being a stable solution or a near-term solution."

Rare earths, though, are a much smaller market than nickel and price supports are key until there is more transparent pricing, said Sanderson, a former U.S. diplomat and executive at copper miner Freeport-McMoRan.

The London Metal Exchange, for example, trades nickel but not rare earths, a market that China also dominates.

"The LME has shown no interest so far in trying to develop a rare earths market and part of that is because it's currently a narrow spectrum of an already narrow market," Sanderson said. "It would be helpful if LME were to develop a pricing mechanism for rare earths, but the question becomes, 'Would China actually honor it?'"

SPEED UP FINANCING REVIEW

Mckinsey Lyon of Perpetua, which is building an antimony and gold mine in Idaho, said Washington's recent moves reflect a "frantic scramble" to understand what can be a confusing web of federal agencies and programs, each with priorities that sometimes conflict.

"Companies are getting some solutions, but what's not happening right now is a comprehensive strategy or road map," said Lyon.

Both Perpetua and Westwin have applied for funding from the US Export-Import Bank (ExIm), which acts as the US government's export credit agency.

Lyon and Long both said Washington must move faster to approve those loans, which often have terms more attractive than with private lenders and at higher amounts. Perpetua, for instance, has asked for $1.8-billion in government loans.

"ExIm debt could allow us to execute on our commercial expansion, but the underwriting needs to speed up," Long said. "They just simply need more processability and more people, basically."