Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 15 January 2026, Canada Growth Fund Inc. (CGF), a CAD 15bn federal Crown investment vehicle, announced it will lead an up to US$85 million structured financing for Mangrove Water Technologies Ltd. (Mangrove Lithium), a British Columbia-based lithium refiner. CGF's own commitment is up to US$65 million, alongside continued participation from existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures and BMW i Ventures; the CGF tranche closed concurrently with a separate CAD 9 million loan from National Bank of Canada backed by the federal Clean Technology Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit. Proceeds commission Mangrove's 1,000-tonne-per-annum Single Stack Plant in Delta, BC and advance development of a planned 20,000-tonne-per-year full-scale plant, with the government citing the deal as reducing reliance on overseas lithium processing and building an onshore mining-to-refining supply chain.

On 3 December 2025, Export Finance Australia (EFA) disclosed a €120 million (~AU$196 million) loan commitment to Vulcan Energy Resources' Phase One Lionheart Project in Germany's Upper Rhine Valley, which will produce battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) from geothermal brine while co-generating renewable heat and power. The loan is part of a syndicated, multi-country export-credit package alongside Germany's KfW Raw Materials Fund, the European Investment Bank, Export Development Canada, Denmark's EIFO, France's Bpifrance Assurance Export, and Italy's SACE, financing a project with total capital cost of ~€2.193 billion (~AU$3.9 billion). Phase One targets 24,000 tonnes per annum of LHM, enough for roughly 500,000 electric vehicles.

On 3 November 2025 the US Department of Commerce's CHIPS Program Office (administered via NIST) announced a non-binding preliminary letter of intent to take a $50 million equity stake in Vulcan Elements, a North Carolina-based rare-earth magnet producer. The CHIPS and Science Act funding is earmarked for equipment to separate, metallize and manufacture Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB) magnets, targeting up to 10,000 metric tonnes of annual domestic production capacity. Commerce framed the investment around NdFeB magnets' role in the semiconductor equipment supply chain (EUV lithography, CVD, etch and pump systems). The equity stake is conditioned on final negotiation and approval and runs alongside a separately-tracked $620 million Department of War Office of Strategic Capital loan to Vulcan Elements and ReElement Technologies announced the same day.

On 3 November 2025 the US Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), together with the Department of Commerce, announced a joint conditional loan commitment of $700 million to two domestic rare-earth magnet producers: $620 million to Vulcan Elements and $80 million to ReElement Technologies. The loans fund separation, metallization and finished-magnet manufacturing capacity for Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB) magnets, targeting up to 10,000 metric tons of annual domestic magnet production. In exchange, the Department of War receives warrants in both companies. This action covers the OSC loan tranche; a related, separately-tracked action covers the Department of Commerce's parallel $50 million CHIPS Act equity stake in Vulcan Elements.

The US Department of War announced a USD 43.4 million Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III award to Alaska Range Resources, LLC — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nova Minerals Limited — to fund the initial phase of an integrated domestic antimony supply chain at the Estelle Gold and Critical Minerals Project, roughly 150 km northwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The award funds extraction, concentration and refining of stibnite ore into military-grade antimony trisulfide, used in munitions primer production and case hardening. It follows China's December 2024 ban on antimony exports to the US and is intended to establish a "full spectrum" domestic antimony mining and refining hub to reduce reliance on Chinese-controlled supply.

On 1 February 2021, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a USD 30.4 million Defense Production Act Title III technology investment agreement with Lynas USA LLC, the U.S. subsidiary of Australia's Lynas Rare Earths Ltd, to establish domestic light rare earth element (LREE) separation capacity in Hondo, Texas. DOD framed the award as reducing reliance on China for rare earth oxides used in defense and commercial applications; the department projected that, if the Texas facility and Lynas's Malaysian operations are completed as planned, Lynas would supply roughly 25% of world rare earth oxide demand outside China.