Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines and Mining Development gazetted a formal Mineral Classification and Declaration on 22 May 2026, signed by Minister Dr Polite Kambamura, classifying 14 minerals as "critical" (nickel, cobalt, graphite, copper, REE, chrome, PGMs, manganese, antimony, uranium, ruthenium, tungsten, niobium — plus metallurgical coal as "special critical") and 10 as "strategic" (limestone, potash, phosphorus, iron ore, pyrites, oil, gas, coal, gold, diamonds). The declaration mandates minimum state shareholding through designated Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) in all critical-mineral exploitation operations and prohibits export of listed minerals in raw or unbeneficiated form without a ministerially-approved conditional transitional plan specifying a local beneficiation timeline.

The Government of Manitoba announced CAD 51 million in new provincial funding for Arctic Gateway Group — the First Nations- and Bayline community-owned operator of the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill — to fund capital improvements bringing the rail line up to Class I freight-load standard and to build a new critical-minerals storage and loading facility at the port. The announcement was made jointly with the federal government as part of the "Port of Churchill Plus" initiative, bringing cumulative provincial investment in the project to CAD 87.5 million and combined federal-provincial commitment to CAD 262.5 million over five years (including CAD 175 million in federal funding announced March 2025). The project is explicitly positioned as building sovereign Arctic export capacity for critical minerals and potash, reducing reliance on southern rail/port corridors and US-routed trade.

On 6 November 2025, the US Department of the Interior (DOI) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) released the final 2025 List of Critical Minerals under the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. § 1606), expanding the designation from 50 to 60 minerals. The final list adds 10 newly designated commodities — boron, copper, lead, metallurgical coal, phosphate, potash, rhenium, silicon, silver, and uranium — based on updated supply-chain disruption modelling, public comment, and interagency recommendations. The list constitutes the foundational statutory anchor for downstream US critical-minerals policy instruments including DPA Title III awards, DOE LPO Title 17 loan eligibility, IRA Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit eligibility, Section 30D FEOC determinations, BIS export-control predicate assessments, Section 232 trade-investigation predicates, and CFIUS critical-technology triggers under 31 CFR § 800.215.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank provided a CAD 42 million (approx. USD 30.7 million) repayable loan to George Gordon Development Limited (GGDL), the economic-development arm of George Gordon First Nation, to fund the Wicehtowak Solar project — a 32.4 MW solar facility in the Rural Municipality of Dufferin, Saskatchewan. The loan enables GGFN to acquire full ownership of the project, which will supply Saskatchewan's grid under a 30-year virtual power purchase agreement with SaskPower and deliver power directly to the adjacent K+S Potash Canada mine. Natural Resources Canada separately provided a CAD 33 million grant under the Smart Renewables Electrification Pathways Program toward the same project.

Regulation (EU) 2025/1227, published 20 June 2025, imposes an additional 50% ad valorem customs duty on top of the standard Common Customs Tariff rate on roughly 101 tariff lines of agricultural products originating in or exported from Russia or Belarus, closing the remaining gap in the agri-tariff regime first opened in 2024. Fertilisers from the two countries face a separate, gradually escalating specific duty — starting around EUR 40-45 per tonne on top of the existing 6.5% ad valorem rate for the 2025-26 period, rising in annual steps to EUR 430 per tonne by 2028. The measure enters into force 1 July 2025 and is explicitly framed by the Council and Parliament as a further squeeze on Russian export revenue used to fund the war against Ukraine, extending the July 2024 agri-tariff regulation (EU) 2024/1392 to cover the products it left out.

President Trump signed Executive Order 14241 on 20 March 2025 (Federal Register publication 25 March 2025) invoking Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III sections 301, 302, and 303 — and selected Title VII authorities — for domestic critical-mineral production, and delegated those authorities to the Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The order operationalises the "national energy emergency" declared by EO 14156 (Jan 2025) to waive certain DPA §303 congressional-notification thresholds, designates "mineral production" as an Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program priority, expands the EO definition of "critical minerals" to include uranium, copper, potash, gold (and any further item designated by the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council), and directs the Departments of the Interior, Energy, Treasury, and EXIM Bank to mobilise federal lands, permitting, and financing to expand US upstream and midstream capacity. EO 14241 is the cross-cutting domestic-mineral umbrella authority of the second Trump administration, paired with FY2025 supplemental appropriations (USD 2bn National Defense Stockpile, USD 5bn Industrial Base Fund) and complemented by the 24 April 2025 follow-on EO on offshore minerals and the 8 April 2025 coal amendment.

Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandon issued Order No. 06/PM on 7 March 2025 introducing two headline measures: (i) a permanent nationwide ban on all alluvial gold extraction, including gravel- and sand-suction methods, and (ii) a moratorium on approval of any new metallic-mineral projects for the remainder of the current government term. The Order also mandates enhanced monitoring and inspection of existing licensed mining operations, with particular focus on environmental compliance and remediation. Rationale cited by the PM includes recurring landslide and water-contamination incidents attributed to unregulated artisanal and semi-industrial extraction. This is the first instrument issued under the post-2024-Investment-Promotion-Law framework that directly constrains new-mine pipeline development in Laos, reversing the outward-FDI-friendly signal that Law 62/NA had sent to Chinese-backed project sponsors.

On 29 January 2025 the Union Cabinet of India approved the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), a seven-year programme running FY2024-25 through FY2030-31 with a headline financial envelope of ₹34,300 crore (≈USD 4.0 bn). The structure is split: ₹16,300 crore of direct government outlay administered by the Ministry of Mines, plus an expected ₹18,000 crore of investment by central public-sector undertakings (PSUs) and other stakeholders. The mission was first announced by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2024-25 (23 July 2024) and the Cabinet approval gave it formal sanction. The NCMM covers the full critical-minerals value chain: domestic exploration, mining, beneficiation, processing, recycling from end-of-life products, and acquisition of overseas mineral assets. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is tasked with executing 1,200 exploration projects over the seven-year window (vs. 368 projects over the prior three years), expanded to offshore polymetallic-nodule provinces containing cobalt, REE, nickel and manganese. More than 100 critical-mineral blocks are slated for auction. Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL) — the JV of NALCO, HCL and MECL — is the designated vehicle for overseas acquisitions, with active Argentina lithium (CAMYEN SE, 15,703 ha) and Australia lithium/cobalt off-take pipelines. India's official critical-minerals list contains 30 commodities, of which 24 are inscribed in Part D of Schedule I of the MMDR Act 1957 (after the 2023 amendment), reserving central-government auction authority over them. The NCMM sets an explicit recycling target of 15-20% of domestic critical-mineral demand met from secondary sources (e-waste, battery scrap, industrial waste) by 2035. The mission also funds a National Centre of Excellence for Critical Minerals and offers customs-duty waivers on 25 critical minerals (announced in the same FY24-25 budget) to lower import costs while domestic capacity scales. NCMM is India's pull-side complement to the US IRA, EU Critical Raw Materials Act, Canada Critical Minerals Strategy and Australia Critical Minerals Strategy — a coordinated allied response to Chinese dominance over refined cobalt, REE, graphite and gallium/germanium. For India specifically it is framed as the supply-chain underpinning for FAME-III (EV adoption), the Semicon India programme (gallium/germanium/silicon), and the National Solar Mission (silicon, indium, tellurium, gallium for thin-film PV).

In October 2023 Jordan's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) formally presented a National Mining Sector Strategy 2023-2033, accompanied by an Implementation Roadmap; the Council of Ministers Cabinet-approved and publicly launched the package in April 2024. The strategy sets headline targets of tripling mining-sector GDP from approximately JD 700 million to JD 2.1 billion and doubling mining exports from JD 1.2 billion to JD 3.5 billion by 2033. Policy instruments include a streamlined exploration-to-exploitation licensing regime under the Natural Resources Law (Law No. 12 of 1968 as amended), transparent royalty and community-benefit-sharing provisions, and catalytic foreign and domestic investment in phosphate (via state-majority Jordan Phosphate Mines Company — JPMC, a top-5 global exporter), potash (Arab Potash Company — APC, Dead Sea brine extraction), Wadi Araba copper prospects, REE deposits (MEMR exploration surveys), Central Jordan Uranium Project, and oil-shale resources, positioning Jordan as an upstream critical-minerals and fertilizer-feedstock supplier for India, China, Brazil, EU, and US offtake markets.

On 16 March 2022 the Swiss Federal Council adopted a total revision of the Ordinance on Measures against Belarus (SR 946.231.116.9), aligning Switzerland's autonomous sanctions with the EU's Belarus regime. It bans imports of Belarusian petroleum products, potassium chloride ("potash"), wood, iron and steel, and cement and rubber products; bans exports of goods used to manufacture or process tobacco products, weapons, surveillance equipment, and goods usable for Belarus's military or security development; and imposes financial sanctions including a ban on public financing for trade with or investment in Belarus, restrictions on securities/loans/ deposits, a prohibition on transactions with the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, and exclusion of listed Belarusian banks from SWIFT. The ordinance entered into force on the day it was adopted.

Regulations Amending the Special Economic Measures (Belarus) Regulations, SOR/2022-49, were registered and came into force on 8 March 2022. They add 19 individuals and 25 entities to Schedule 1 and widen the listing criteria to cover persons supporting the violation of Ukraine's sovereignty or territorial integrity. Listed entities named in the regulatory impact statement include the potash producer Belaruskali OAO and the Belarusian Potash Company, the Naftan Oil Refinery and Belneftkhim, and Absolutbank, Belinvestbank, Belbizneslizing and Bank Dabrabyt. Listing brings asset freezes and dealing prohibitions for persons in Canada.

On 2 March 2022 the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2022/355, amending Regulation (EC) No 765/2006 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus. It bans importing, purchasing or transporting products originating in or exported from Belarus in wood (Annex X), cement (Annex XI), iron and steel (Annex XII) and rubber (Annex XIII), and extends restrictions to potassium chloride ("potash"), tobacco and mineral products, plus a ban on exporting dual-use goods, machinery (Annex XIV) and goods usable for Belarus's military or security development. The measure responds to Belarus's active facilitation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It entered into force the day after publication in the Official Journal (OJ L 67, 2 March 2022), i.e. 3 March 2022, with a wind-down period to 4 June 2022 for pre-existing contracts.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), Australia's government-owned green bank, approved a senior project finance loan of up to USD 47 million to Salt Lake Potash Ltd (ASX/AIM: SO4), part of a USD 138 million syndicated senior debt facility (alongside Taurus Mining Finance Fund No. 2) to build the Lake Way sulphate-of-potash (SOP) brine project near Wiluna, Western Australia. The facility funds construction of Australia's first greenfield SOP brine operation, part-powered by a 5MW solar farm and 2MW battery, targeted at cutting SOP production emissions by more than 30% versus conventional non-brine methods.