The White House has invited top executives from the US critical minerals industry to a meeting Friday with President Donald Trump meant to demonstrate the administration’s commitment to wean the nation off supply chains dominated by China.

The event is designed to showcase efforts to help spur critical minerals development and processing, with plans to unveil a handful of a deals and memoranda of understanding, according to people familiar with the summit, who requested anonymity to provide details ahead of a formal announcement. 

Among those invited to the meeting are representatives from industry heavyweights including Rio Tinto Group, BHP Group and Freeport-McMoRan Inc., as well as participants from MP Materials Corp., USA Rare Earth Inc., Energy Fuels Inc., US Antimony Corp., Sunrise Energy Metals Ltd., and The Metals Company among others, the people said. 

Some companies are still determining whether they will attend in person and if so, which executives to send, according to the people familiar. Trump is set to be joined by leaders of his National Energy Dominance Council, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, executive director Jarrod Agen, as well as White House adviser David Copley.

The event has been in the works for weeks, though there’s been a rush to pull together final details in recent days, with a range of US government agencies tapped to participate, some of the people said.

Specifics on potential deals were not immediately available Thursday. Ahead of the session, White House officials asked government agencies to detail recently closed deals and MOUs that would help demonstrate momentum on the president’s critical minerals agenda, some of the people said.

A White House official said the administration is putting together a historic meeting of mining industry officials as the president advances measures to support critical mineral development. 

Trump has regularly summoned top executives from industries, including technology and energy, to showcase his economic priorities and press them to back portions of his agenda. 

Friday’s meeting comes more than a year after the US government launched a multi-billion critical minerals policy that’s embraced a new model of statecraft, with American taxpayers committing some $10 billion to build a so-called mine-to-magnet supply chain. The goal is ensuring robust US production of rare earths and critical products deemed essential to national security. 

The policy went into hyperdrive last year after China rattled global markets by implementing export controls on certain rare earth minerals and permanent magnets, which are critical to a host of industries and used in a wide array of products including, automobiles, wind turbines and defense applications.

(By Joe Deaux)