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

Romania's Government adopted Emergency Ordinance nr. 8/2026 on 24 February 2026, published in the Official Gazette (Monitorul Oficial) nr. 147 of 25 February 2026 and entering into force 1 March 2026, committing a EUR 5 billion (~RON 25 bn) horizontal economic-recovery and productive-investment envelope through 2032 structured around nine state-aid schemes, a 200% corporate R&D expense deduction (High-Tech Research Schema), a RON 1 bn Investment and Development Bank (BID) recapitalization, and a RON 1 bn EximBank export-credit allocation. The ordinance frames Romania's pivot "from consumption to investments as the engine of economic growth" and establishes a Strategic Investment tier (minimum RON 1 bn project value) qualifying for the highest-intensity state-aid eligibility, while introducing a 3% tax-compliance bonus and asset-expensing threshold raised to RON 5,000.

Brazil's federal innovation-financing agency FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos), under the MCTI/FNDCT umbrella, published a BRL 215.2 million (~USD 40.8 million) public call — "Finep Mais Inovação Brasil – Transformação Mineral" — offering non-repayable economic-subsidy grants for private-sector research, development and innovation projects across five thematic lines: critical and strategic minerals for the energy transition, urban mining (recovery of high-value materials from e-waste, batteries, photovoltaic cells and wind-turbine magnets), rare-earth magnets, sustainable mining technologies, and decarbonization of mineral transformation. Applicant companies must partner with a Scientific, Technological and Innovation Institution (ICT). Proposal submission opened 2026-02-06 and, per the official call page, the deadline was later extended from 2026-08-31 to 2026-09-04 18:00 (Brasília time).

On 5 February 2026, South Africa's state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) made a USD 20 million equity investment in Frontier Rare Earths' local subsidiary to fund a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) and corporate development for the Zandkopsdrift rare-earths and battery-grade manganese project in the Northern Cape. The investment was announced jointly with a technology supply and offtake agreement between Frontier and France's Carester SAS. The IDC holds an option to offtake up to 10% of Zandkopsdrift production at prevailing market prices, conditional on further downstream processing occurring in South Africa.

The US Department of Commerce's CHIPS Program Office, invoking authority under the CHIPS and Science Act, signed a non-binding letter of intent on 2026-01-26 to provide USA Rare Earth with up to $277 million in direct federal funding and a $1.3 billion senior secured loan. The funding backs a "mine-to-magnet" vertically integrated supply chain: a rare earth mine at Round Top, Texas (commercial production targeted 2028) and a neodymium-iron-boron magnet and rare-earth-metals manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In exchange, Commerce receives roughly 16.1 million USAR common shares and warrants for a further 17.6 million shares. The agreements were finalized as definitive on 2026-06-03, unlocking access to up to $1.6 billion combined with the federal award, alongside a separately raised $1.5 billion in private capital.

On 20 January 2026, Canada Growth Fund Inc. (CGF), a CAD 15bn federal Crown investment vehicle, invested US$25 million into Cyclic Materials Inc., a Kingston, Ontario-based rare-earth recycler. The investment forms part of a US$75 million Series C preferred-equity round led by T. Rowe Price Associates, with continued participation from existing investors; CGF's US$25 million contributes roughly one-third of the total raise. Proceeds expand Cyclic's Kingston Center of Excellence and Canada-based R&D footprint and accelerate commercial deployment of its Hub-and-Spoke recycling process, which recovers magnet metals (rare-earth oxides) from end-of-life products and manufacturing scrap at a stated 98%+ recovery rate.

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 16 December 2025 the European Commission adopted the Communication on a Battery Booster Strategy (later published in the Official Journal as C/2026/682), part of the EU Automotive Package presented alongside the CO2 emission-standards review, the Automotive Omnibus simplification, and the Corporate Vehicle Decarbonisation initiative. The Battery Booster envelopes EUR 1.8bn of EU-budget support for the European battery value chain: EUR 1.5bn from the Innovation Fund as interest-free loans for European battery cell producers ramping to giga-scale output (delivered through a dedicated Battery Booster Facility, with the implementing Commission Decision in stakeholder consultation through 15 March 2026), plus EUR 300m for critical raw materials projects in Europe. The strategy is the first standalone EU industrial-finance instrument targeted exclusively at battery cell manufacturing, and is paired with RESourceEU (3 Dec 2025) and the Industrial Accelerator Act proposal (4 Mar 2026) to stitch together upstream CRM, midstream cell production and downstream automotive demand.

The US Department of Commerce awarded Crucible Metals, LLC — a subsidiary of South Korea's Korea Zinc — USD 210 million in direct CHIPS Incentives Program funding to build a smelter and critical-minerals processing facility in Clarksville, Tennessee. The facility, styled "Project Crucible," is an advanced replica of Korea Zinc's Onsan complex and is expected to cost roughly USD 6.6 billion in capital expenditure (USD 7.4 billion in total project financing), targeting first production in 2029. At full scale it is designed to produce 13 critical and strategic minerals — including gallium, germanium, antimony, indium, bismuth, tellurium, cadmium and palladium alongside roughly 300,000 tons/year of zinc, 200,000 tons/year of lead and 35,000+ tons/year of copper. As a condition of the award, Korea Zinc committed to give the US government and US customers priority access to its existing Korean-refined output of 10 critical minerals beginning in 2026, and the project separately secured conditional Department of War (Office of Strategic Capital) loan support and FAST-41 covered-project permitting status.

The Government of Ontario launched the Critical Minerals Processing Fund (CMPF), a CAD 500 million (~USD 364 million) provincial financial-support program to accelerate processing and refining capacity for critical minerals mined in the province, administered through Invest Ontario. The fund targets nickel, graphite, copper, cobalt and lithium, with a geographic emphasis on the Ring of Fire region northeast of Thunder Bay, and is intended to keep Ontario-mined minerals processed domestically rather than exported raw. It complements a separate CAD 3.1 billion package of loans, guarantees, grants and scholarships supporting Indigenous participation in the province's critical-minerals supply chain, and was first flagged in Ontario's 2025 Budget.

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.

The US Department of Energy's Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity for up to $134 million to support projects that demonstrate commercial-scale recovery and refining of rare earth elements — praseodymium, neodymium, terbium and dysprosium — from unconventional feedstocks such as mine tailings, e-waste and other waste streams, under the department's Rare Earth Demonstration Facility program. Applicants must partner with an academic institution and cost-share at least 50% of project cost; non-binding letters of intent were due December 10, 2025 with full applications due January 5, 2026.

UK Export Finance launched the Critical Goods Export Development Guarantee (Critical Goods EDG), a lending-support scheme that offers an 80% government guarantee on commercial finance for UK-based suppliers of critical minerals to UK exporters. Eligible suppliers must produce at least 50% of their critical-mineral goods for UK exporters (lowered to 20% if the firm also earns at least 5% of turnover from overseas sales), and the mineral must appear on the UK Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre's 2024 criticality assessment or the associated growth-minerals list. The scheme targets commercial lending facilities above £25 million and lets suppliers access the guarantee even if they do not export directly, as long as their output feeds into UK exporters' end products.

The US Department of War announced a USD 29.9 million Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III award to ElementUS Minerals, LLC (doing business as ElementUSA) to construct a demonstration facility in Gramercy, Louisiana extracting gallium and scandium (and other critical minerals) from bauxite residue, a byproduct of alumina refining. The company holds proprietary extraction technology and access to over 30 million tons of bauxite residue feedstock, and the award is intended to establish one of the first domestic US producers of both gallium and scandium. Secondary development work occurs at the company's "Critical Resource Accelerator" in Cedar Park, Texas.

The US Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, via the National Energy Technology Laboratory, announced USD 355 million in federal funding across two notices of funding opportunity (NOFOs) on 14 November 2025: up to USD 275 million for pilot-scale facilities recovering critical minerals from coal-based feedstocks and industrial/mining byproducts at existing US industrial sites, and up to USD 80 million for the "Mine of the Future — Proving Ground Initiative," field-scale test sites for next-generation mining technologies (novel extraction, in-situ methods, beneficiation) plus mining-workforce training. Applications were due 15 December 2025.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank provided a CAD 139.5 million (approx. USD 99.4 million) loan to BC Hydro, a provincial Crown utility, to fund the early-works phase of the North Coast Transmission Line (NCTL) in northwest British Columbia. Early works cover project planning, engineering, fieldwork, procurement, First Nations consultation and stakeholder engagement ahead of construction. The financing responds to anticipated electricity demand growth from port operations, mining (including critical-minerals projects), hydrogen production, LNG and technology sectors that is expected to exceed the capacity of the region's existing single 500-kV transmission line from Prince George to Terrace.

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.

Canada Growth Fund Inc. (CGF), an arm's-length investment vehicle wholly owned by the Government of Canada, announced on 31 October 2025 an approximately CAD 25 million (USD ~17.8M) investment in Rio Tinto's scandium oxide operation at its Critical Minerals and Metallurgical Centre in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The investment, structured as an equity-like financial royalty, will help expand the facility's nameplate capacity to 9 tonnes of scandium oxide per year. Alongside the investment, the Government of Canada agreed to an offtake agreement committing to purchase a volume of the scandium produced, and a marketing and storage agreement under which Rio Tinto will market and store scandium on Canada's behalf.

Natural Resources Canada's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson, announced on 31 October 2025 conditional approval of up to CAD 14,062,500 (USD ~10.0M) in non-repayable federal funding for Focus Graphite Inc. under NRCan's Global Partnerships Initiative, part of the G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan's first tranche of 26 investments and partnerships. Focus Graphite executed the funding agreement on 8 December 2025. The grant covers approximately 73.6% of eligible project costs for a commercial-scale electrothermal fluidized-bed purification demonstration plant converting Quebec natural flake graphite (from the Lac Knife and Lac Tétépisca deposits) into ultra-high-purity battery-anode and advanced materials, with Focus Graphite contributing the remaining CAD 4.79M cash plus CAD 250K in-kind. Eligible expenditures run 14 October 2025 to 31 March 2028.

Natural Resources Canada's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson, announced on 31 October 2025 conditional approval of up to CAD 36.3 million (USD ~25.8M) in Government of Canada funding for Ucore Rare Metals Inc.'s "Pathway to Samarium and Gadolinium Security" project, part of the first tranche of 26 investments and partnerships under the G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan. The package comprises up to CAD 26.3 million in non-repayable contributions from NRCan's Global Partnerships Initiative (GPI) and up to CAD 10 million from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). Funding will scale up a commercial-scale RapidSX(TM) separation facility in Kingston, Ontario, intended to be the first dedicated samarium and gadolinium oxide production plant in North America, supporting samarium-cobalt magnet production for defence and other applications. Funding remains subject to due diligence and a Contribution Agreement.

On 21 October 2025, the Queensland Government announced an AUD 30 million investment via the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) into Silica Resources Australia (SRA), backing the Mourilyan Silica Sands Project roughly 30km south of Innisfail in Far North Queensland, near the Port of Mourilyan. The funding supports plant, equipment and land acquisition for a project producing high-purity silica sand and silica flour used in glass (including display/TFT glass), solar-panel manufacturing, semiconductors, fibreglass composites and foundry applications. Production is targeted to reach 360,000+ tonnes per year within 12 months and 750,000+ tonnes within 5 years, with Japan, South Korea and the US identified as target export markets.

On 8 October 2025 the Australian Government (Albanese) and Queensland Government (Crisafulli) jointly announced up to AUD 600 million in co-funding — split evenly at AUD 300 million each — to keep Glencore's Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville copper refinery operating through at least 2028. Funding is structured as three tranches of up to AUD 200 million released over three years, contingent on completion of a transformation study and further review points. The package protects more than 600 direct jobs at the smelter/refinery plus roughly 500 further jobs at the adjacent Phosphate Hill facility, and preserves roughly half of Australia's total copper smelting capacity. It follows Glencore's October 2023 announcement of intended closure and a July 2025 end-of-operations notice, with Glencore describing the deal as a short-term lifeline after absorbing sustained financial losses.

On 8 October 2025 South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC) — the state-owned asset manager that invests the Government Employees Pension Fund and other public-sector funds — announced it has set aside ZAR 1.35 billion (~USD 78.7 million) to fund early-stage mining projects, from post-scoping through bankable-feasibility-study stage. Capital is deployed indirectly via private equity, venture capital, specialist mining funds and joint ventures, in tickets of ZAR 100-400 million per project. At least 50% of funded projects must be in South Africa, with the remainder earmarked for copper/cobalt in Zambia and the DRC, rare earths in Malawi, and graphite in Tanzania and Madagascar. The fund explicitly targets minerals aligned with South Africa's Just Energy Transition (JET) and carries BEE Level 2 / Historically Disadvantaged Individuals preference criteria for South African applicants.

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 18 September 2025 the Australian Government announced a AUD 5 billion Net Zero Fund to accelerate industrial decarbonisation, delivered as a new sub-fund of the existing AUD 15 billion National Reconstruction Fund (NRF). The fund offers highly concessional finance — targeting a rate of return of the five-year Australian government bond rate minus 1 percentage point — to help heavy-industry facilities decarbonise energy-intensive operations and to scale up domestic manufacturing of low-emissions technologies. The fund finalised its design and opened to back new manufacturing-investment and energy projects on 20 April 2026.

Invest Ontario, the Government of Ontario's investment-attraction agency, signed a non-binding term sheet to provide up to CAD 17.5 million (~USD 12.7 million) in state loan support to Electra Battery Materials Corporation toward its ~CAD 100 million project to build what the company describes as North America's first cobalt sulfate refinery, at Temiskaming Shores, Ontario. The funding is explicitly conditional on the parties reaching a definitive agreement and is intended to reduce reliance on foreign-controlled (principally Chinese) cobalt-refining capacity for EV and energy-storage battery supply chains.

On 25 August 2025, ARPA-E launched the Magnetic Acceleration Generating New Innovations and Tactical Outcomes (MAGNITO) program, a funding opportunity making up to USD 20 million available for research into new permanent-magnet materials with saturation magnetization or maximum energy product exceeding any known material — using computational materials discovery, AI/machine learning, and high-throughput experimentation. The goal is to unlock stronger, lighter, cheaper motors and generators and reduce US dependence on rare-earth magnets and their foreign-controlled supply chains. The program was announced the same day as the companion ROCKS ore-characterization program, together framed by DOE as a USD 60 million package.

On 25 August 2025, ARPA-E launched the Reliable Ore Characterization with Keystone Sensing (ROCKS) program, a funding opportunity (FOA DE-FOA-0003592) making up to USD 40 million available for projects developing faster, cheaper drilling, sensing, and analysis technologies to characterize rare-earth-element and critical-mineral ore deposits in months rather than years. Individual awards range from USD 2 million to 5 million. The program is part of a wider USD 60 million ARPA-E package announced the same day alongside the companion MAGNITO program for advanced permanent-magnet materials.

On 20 August 2025 the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), a federal Crown corporation, launched the Industrial Innovation Venture Fund II (I²VF II) with a CAD 200 million (USD 144.4 million) commitment to back early-stage, high-growth companies developing productivity technologies for advanced manufacturing, mining and extractive industries, and agriculture/food. The fund expands on Fund I (2019, 20+ portfolio companies) with a widened focus on critical minerals alongside robotics, automation, applied AI and industrial software. BDC frames the fund as a response to Canada's productivity gap, which EVP Geneviève Bouthillier described as "especially acute in sectors like manufacturing, mining, and agriculture."

The US Department of Defense announced a USD 10 million Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III award to Elk Creek Resources Corp (ECRC), a subsidiary of NioCorp Developments Ltd, to advance a domestic "mine-to-master-alloy" scandium supply chain at the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in Nebraska. The funds support feasibility-level engineering, additional reserve drilling and updated cost estimates for the polymetallic deposit (scandium, niobium, titanium and rare earths), and support integration of aluminum-scandium master alloy into aerospace platforms alongside a defense prime contractor. The award notes the US has not mined scandium since 1969 and that current global scandium supply is overwhelmingly foreign-sourced, with China the dominant producer.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank, a federal Crown corporation, reached financial close on a CAD 55 million enabling-infrastructure loan to Torngat Metals Ltd., its first investment in the critical minerals sector. The loan funds early-stage work — utility connections, airstrip rehabilitation, and infrastructure upgrades — ahead of construction of an open-pit mine and concentration plant at the Strange Lake rare earth deposit (Nunavik, Quebec) and a separation plant in Sept-Îles. The financing is paired with a separate CAD 110 million bridge facility from Export Development Canada, bringing combined federal support to CAD 165 million, and is framed by CIB as advancing the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy.

Canada Growth Fund Inc. (CGF), a CAD 15bn federal Crown investment vehicle, announced on 14 May 2025 a CAD 156 million (~USD 111.85M) cornerstone investment in a CAD 350 million non-brokered private placement by Foran Mining Corporation. CGF is acquiring 52,000,000 common shares at CAD 3.00 per share, alongside co-investors Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (~CAD 90M), affiliates of Fairfax Financial Holdings (~CAD 75M), an institutional investor (~CAD 28M) and Foran's CEO (~CAD 1M). Proceeds fund development of Foran's McIlvenna Bay copper-zinc-gold-silver project in Saskatchewan, and CGF frames the deal as advancing Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy.

The Inflation Reduction Act (Public Law 117-169), signed by President Biden on 16 August 2022, contains the largest single package of clean-energy and clean-manufacturing subsidies in US history — Congressional Budget Office scored the energy and climate provisions at $369B over 10 years, with subsequent Treasury / academic estimates reaching $800B-$1.2T as uptake exceeded baseline. Core mechanisms include the Section 30D Clean Vehicle credit ($7,500 per qualifying EV), the Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit (per-unit credits for domestically-produced battery cells, modules, electrodes, and critical-mineral processing), the Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit, and the Section 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Credit. Critically, the law contains Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) provisions barring credit eligibility for vehicles or components linked to entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea.

On 22 July 2021, Australia's Minister for Industry, Science and Technology announced an AUD 14.8 million Modern Manufacturing Initiative grant to Lynas Rare Earths for a new Rare Earth Carbonate Refining Circuit at its planned Kalgoorlie, Western Australia processing facility. The published GrantConnect award record (GA200152, approved 16 June 2021) lists the contracted grant value to recipient Lynas Kalgoorlie Pty Ltd at AUD 15,618,958.30 (GST inclusive). The process reduces chemical consumption and processing cost for refining ore from Lynas's Mt Weld deposit onshore in Australia, reducing reliance on Chinese midstream rare earth refining capacity.

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.

On 20 January 2021, DOE's Office of Fossil Energy (now FECM), managed through the National Energy Technology Laboratory, announced Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0002404, making USD 28.35 million available for cost-shared R&D projects developing advanced midstream processing technologies for rare earth elements and critical minerals from coal and coal by-products, for industrial and manufacturing applications. Applications were due 1 March 2021, with up to eight Phase 1 awards anticipated; no specific recipients were named at announcement.