Controlled Thermal Resources' Hell's Kitchen lithium and renewable power plant project in California. US critical mineral projects may benefit from increased bipartisanship on mining policy in Washington. Source: David McNew/Getty Images News via Getty Images North America.

Democrats and Republicans alike have been expressing support for US metal extraction, allowing domestic miners to bask in a rare moment of bipartisan support, though they say turning that backing into barrier-clearing action remains a tough pull.

Republicans have long supported extraction industries including oil, natural gas and mining in the US. That includes former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, who worked to advance the US mining sector during his term in office.

Democrats are better known for blocking mine development to protect the natural landscape and prevent the air and water pollution that often accompanies mining. But President Joe Biden, a Democrat, helped engineer robust support for US mining through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and has issued sweeping executive orders to assist the industry. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has not discussed critical minerals on the campaign trail, though she vocally backed both laws before launching her bid.

Both parties have said they seek to break Chinese dominance of critical minerals processing while bringing home the kind of blue collar work they believe is missing from the US economy.

Yet while miners are pleased to have the winds at their backs, industry participants and observers say converting all that good will into real action for new mines remains a long haul.

"You see that the political tides are in your favor as a mining person in the United States," said Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute and professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines. "But while the sort of high-level political language gives you that impression, there are still significant obstacles to actually making [investments] happen, and that difference between the soaring rhetoric and the ability to make a decision to invest is rather gaping."

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Shared worries

Bipartisan concerns about reliance on foreign nations such as China for metals and expected shortages of commodities key to the energy transition including copper should continue to bolster cross-party work on mining sector issues, experts said. China was home to 43.3% of the world's refined copper production capacity in 2021, according to a S&P Global Market Intelligence report.

"Both sides of the table know that having domestic reliable sources of critical minerals is imperative for our energy defense and national security, and that should be a motivation for them to work together," Meaghan Connors, counsel in the banking and finance practice at law firm Mayer Brown, told S&P Global Commodity Insights in an email. "Hopefully, the outcome of the upcoming election will not change the focus and sentiment on the parties to work together."

US demand for refined copper, for example, is forecast to grow 19.3% between 2024 and 2028, while the country's demand for lithium for passenger plug-in electric vehicles alone is expected to surge 179.1% over the same period, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

Democratic backing

The Biden administration has pulled what levers it could to promote US mining while avoiding the ire of its allies in the environmental movement. Biden issued executive orders to promote a critical minerals supply chain in 2021 before devoting effort to passing the Inflation Reduction Act.

The act gave the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office (LPO) billions of dollars to lend to prospective critical minerals producers and processors.

"The game changer [in the financing] area is the LPO determination this year that they can lend in mining projects," said Todd Malan, chief external affairs officer and head of climate strategy at mineral exploration company Talon Metals Corp., referring to an April announcement that LPO funds can apply to mining and extraction activities.

Two of the LPO's biggest financing programs linked to battery and battery metals projects are Title 17 and the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program. The two programs completed an aggregate $13.7 billion in conditional commitments and loan closings between August 2023 and August 2024, including a conditional commitment for a $2.26 billion loan for Lithium Americas Corp.'s Lithium Nevada operation in Nevada.

The LPO will likely keep supporting mining projects if Harris is elected as president in November, Malan said.

Beyond direct investments in critical minerals projects, federal funding for agencies' information-gathering activities is also contributing to the recent optimistic policy atmosphere for the sector.

"There has been a huge increase in federal funding that we have tapped into in Nevada," said James Faulds, director and state geologist at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology and a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Faulds highlighted increased funding for the US Geological Survey's Earth Mapping Resources Initiative under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The legislation allocated $320 million for fiscal 2022 through 2026 to the mapping initiative, which is a partnership between the USGS and state geological surveys, in part to map deposits of critical minerals.

"We're in a different environment than we even were five years ago in terms of both sides of the aisle really being interested in facilitating research and development in these arenas," Faulds said.

The policy environment has spurred some renewed investment interest in the US mining sector.

The US was the world's top destination for lithium exploration spending in 2022, for example, and is expected to continue to garner attention from the mining sector.

"There is a lot of interest from industry and across the aisle on new projects," said John Jacobs, senior policy analyst in the Bipartisan Policy Center's energy program. "It feels like every single day, there's a new discovery of some massive critical mineral deposit in the US."

Republican win, no problem

Trump has been clear about his support for the US mining industry. In September 2020, Trump issued an executive order backing mining and critical minerals, and his administration reopened Minnesota's Superior National Forest to mining in 2018. The region is home to Antofagasta PLC unit Twin Metals Minnesota LLC's proposed Maturi copper-nickel mine. The Biden administration placed a 20-year mining moratorium on nearly 226,000 acres of land in the same area in January 2023.

"[I] find that a strong America cannot be dependent on imports from foreign adversaries for the critical minerals that are increasingly necessary to maintain our economic and military strength in the 21st century," Trump said in the executive order.

Bipartisan support for domestic mineral supply chains may act to insulate the LPO's existing critical minerals funding from an overhaul if Trump is elected, experts said.

"The fact that LPO is funding supply chain projects that are crucial to securing supply chains and divesting away from, like, Chinese supply chains, I think makes ... [it] hard to imagine those getting clawed back," Jacobs said.

Policy recommendations from conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, known as the Project 2025 plan and geared towards a potential second Trump administration, call for the elimination of the LPO. Trump has publicly distanced himself from the plan, although its contributors include former senior Trump administration officials and individuals associated with Trump's campaign.

Words not enough

The federal government could go further to encourage mining developments during the permitting stage, Malan said.

"There really should [also] be a place where the US government can provide lending to help projects get through permitting and do it right," Malan said. "The US government could step in to help with loans or grants for mining projects to help them get through our rigorous science-based permitting process at both the state and the federal level."

The LPO could also do more to foster project commercialization, Jacobs said.

"I'm not sure the US is actually doing enough on the commercialization aspect of any of this," Jacobs said. "There's not actually much being done on the demand side of things to make sure that these products are going to have an offtaker, which I think a lot more needs to be done on."

The US has a long way to go to translate early-stage interest into not only project commitments, but active mining operations. The US has no operational mines focused exclusively on key battery metals cobalt or graphite, for example, although there are several planned for each commodity, according to Market Intelligence data.

The domestic mining industry also faces low commodity prices and muted private sector financing, which are disincentivizing overall investment and cannot be overcome by efforts such as LPO funding alone, experts said.

"There are good signals in terms of loans and grants coming out of the [government]," Bazilian said. "But those pieces by themselves do not ensure the sort of enabling landscape to make ... investment decisions."

Beyond pricing and financing issues, long mine permitting lead times and a looming labor crisis are two other paramount concerns for the domestic mining industry, interviewees said.

Mine development in the US takes almost 29 years from first discovery to first production, and US mines have higher litigation risk than in other countries such as Canada and Australia, according to a July report from Market Intelligence and Commodity Insights.

Bipartisan efforts on Capitol Hill to speed up mining and energy permitting procedures have made some headway in recent months, with an industry-backed permitting bill introduced by Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) passing out of committee in July. Permitting policy is likely to continue to be a hot topic in Washington.

"It seems like interest in permitting is not going away," Jacobs said. "I don't see us just passing this bill and then people forget about permitting."