Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2605, adopted 12 December 2025 and published in the Official Journal on 30 December 2025, replaces the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2021/2278, the EU's biennial autonomous Common Customs Tariff (CCT) suspension list for products "not produced in the Union in sufficient quantity." The update adds new full and partial duty suspensions (down to 0%) for battery-production chemical inputs — including lithium metal, lithium hydroxide monohydrate and lithium carbonate, several rare-earth and yttrium/scandium compounds, cobalt oxalate, and lithium hexafluorophosphate (electrolyte salt, rated at 2.7% rather than 0%) — with a mandatory review clause for the battery-related lines by 31 December 2026. It also renews review dates for existing suspensions and removes entries no longer judged to be in the Union's economic interest. The regulation entered into force on publication but applies from 1 January 2026.

On 27 December 2025, Codelco and SQM formally closed NovaAndino Litio SpA, the 50:50 joint venture (with a golden share for state-owned Codelco) mandated by the 2023 National Lithium Strategy to bring the Salar de Atacama under state operational control. The vehicle is formed by merging Codelco's subsidiary Minera Tarar SpA with SQM's SQM Salar SpA, governed by a six-director board (three Codelco, three SQM), and runs until 2060 under a CORFO contract amendment that extends operations beyond SQM's previous 2030 lease expiry. SQM manages operations 2025-2030, Codelco from 2031 onward; the Chilean state captures up to ~70% of operating margins through 2030 and ~85% from 2031. As part of the closing, SQM transferred all of its mining concessions in the Salar de Maricunga to Codelco. President Boric and the Cabinet Económico formally endorsed the venture on 29 December 2025, when the first board meeting was held in Santiago.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 5 September 2025, President Gabriel Boric led the signing of the inaugural Contrato Especial de Operación de Litio (CEOL) between the Chilean government and state mining company ENAMI (Empresa Nacional de Minería) for the Salares Altoandinos basins in the Atacama region — the first CEOL ever issued under Chile's 2023 National Lithium Strategy. The contract runs until 31 December 2060 and covers exploration, evaluation, construction, and extraction phases; Rio Tinto holds a 51% operating stake with up to $425 million in cash and Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology contributions, while ENAMI retains 49% with full corporate- governance rights over material decisions. Projected peak output is 75,000 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), with production expected to commence between 2032 and 2034.

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.

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.

On 14 March 2025, the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan passed the Balochistan Mines and Minerals Act 2025 in a swift, sparsely debated session. The Act establishes the Mineral Investment Facilitation Authority (MIFA) under Section 22, a body composed of provincial and federal members but operating under the umbrella of the federal Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC). MIFA is empowered to designate "strategic" minerals with federal oversight, override provincial mining-department decisions, and channel licensing for the Reko Diq, Saindak and broader Chagai-belt copper-gold-REE deposits to investment vehicles aligned with the Foreign Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act 2022. The Act drew sharp criticism for recentralising mineral authority that the 18th Constitutional Amendment had devolved to provinces, and for omitting any community-participation mechanism. On 23 September 2025 Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti announced suspension of the Act by executive order pending re-tabling for further deliberation, after a joint meeting with opposition leaders.