Coming out of yesterday's meetings in Washington, which brought together representatives from more than 50 countries to discuss minerals, Vice President JD Vance unveiled plans to create a trade bloc for critical minerals, specifically proposing coordinated price floors. In making the proposal, Vance said, "We want to eliminate that problem of people flooding into our markets with cheap critical minerals to undercut our domestic manufacturers…We will establish reference prices for critical minerals at each stage of production," He said.

Also coming out of yesterday's meetings, the U.S. has agreed to work with Japan, Mexico and the European Union on the development of critical minerals to counter China's hold on the world's mineral supply chains. A memorandum of understanding is expected within the next 30 days which will detail how the countries will work together to support projects in mining, refining, processing and recycling.

Finally, yesterday in the House, a bipartisan group of lawmakers came together to pass key legislation from Rep. Pete Stauber – the "Critical Mineral Dominance Act. With so much work done by the administration over the last year to support domestic mining projects, the bill would codify certain provisions of President Trump's executive orders to increase domestic mining and processing.