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Released October 10, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing regulators to approve construction of a 211-mile road into Alaska's Ambler Mining District so that the area's copper, zinc and other critical minerals can be mined. The project was previously rejected by Biden-era regulatory agencies. The order continues a string of favorable approvals the Trump administration has given to U.S. mining projects since the president's return to office.
The Ambler Mining District sits in north-central Alaska, far removed from most basic infrastructure. The area contains copper along with other critical minerals such as cobalt, zinc, gallium, germanium and more that comprise key components of important consumer and defense products, including many types of electronics and electric vehicles. Access to the area by rail or barge has been deemed unfeasible, and therefore the access road into the district is considered the best means to facilitate development.
Construction of the road itself has a checkered past, and like so many other recent projects, has been on the receiving end of alternating rejections and approvals that have come in the Trump-Biden-Trump transitions experienced at the White House. Alaskan agencies ordered the road to be built as far back as 1980, when the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANCILA) included a provision requiring the federal government to permit right-of-way access while keeping conservation objectives in mind. That year, President Jimmy Carter signed the bill into law in a move labeled "The Great Compromise," which granted access to resource development in the state while protecting more than 100 million acres for conservation.
Construction of the access road to the Ambler district was part of that bill, but the project ran into problems with federal regulators. As the road crossed areas managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), it was subject to review under the National Environmental Policy Act. This effectively kept the road and future development of the Ambler Mining District tied up in disputes, conflicting legal interpretations and other challenges that kept the project in limbo for decades.
In 2020, in the final year of the first Trump administration, the Ambler project's long-rusted wheels were greased, and the BLM performed an environmental review with positive results for the project. The agency released a supportive environmental impact statement (EIS) selecting the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities' 211-mile route. However, the decision was challenged in courts by environmental and native groups, and the change in administrations from Trump to Biden brought a re-evaluation of the project, resulting in a supplemental environmental impact statement issued in April 2024. In this revised review, the BLM found that 66 communities as well as the area's caribou and fish on which they subsist would be adversely affected by the road. The BLM and National Park Service opted that no action be taken on the project, and its permits were revoked, effectively killing the project.
Except it wasn't really dead. Enter the second Trump administration, and deeming the project to be a matter of public interest, the White House directed the relevant government agencies to reissue permits for the road's construction, at the same time taking a stake in one of the companies that will develop the site.
Ambler Metals LLC (Fairbanks, Alaska) was formed in February 2020, a few months before the first Trump administration's initial approval of the project. The company is a joint venture of Canada's Trilogy Metals (Vancouver) and Australia's South32 Limited (Perth). Upon issuing the order, the administration announced that it had invested $35.6 million in Trilogy for a 10% stake in the company, with the option to purchase an additional 7.5%. The ownership stake comes under the auspices of the recently rechristened Department of War. In a similar move last month, the Department of Energy took a 5% stake in Canadian miner Lithium Americas (Vancouver) as well as a 5% stake in the Thacker Pass lithium mine the company is developing in Nevada. For more details, see September 25, 2025, article - White House Seeks Stake in Canadian Lithium Miner.
No timeline has been provided for when the road may be completed, allowing the development of the Ambler Mining District in earnest. Industrial Info's coverage of the mining development in its Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Metals & Minerals Project Database lists separate projects for the mine and mill, diesel-fueled power plant and water-treatment facility. While final plans are dependent on further exploration and feasibility results, existing plans suggest a 30 million-ton-per-year open-pit mine with a 10,000-ton-per-day flotation processing plant, resulting in approximately 149 million pounds per year of copper, 173 million tons per of zinc, along with varying amounts of other critical minerals. Subscribers can click here for the related project reports.
This most recent approval of a mining project joins several other U.S. mining sites and projects that have been opened up and given the green light this year by the White House. Most of these approvals involve coal extraction. Late last month, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said his department was opening 13.1 million acres of federal lands for coal leasing, reversing a Biden-era pause in federal coal leases. The areas include parts of North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. Also last month, the BLM announced the lease sale of more than 14,000 acres of metallurgical coal acreage in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, to Warrior Met Coal Incorporated (Brookwood, Alabama).
In addition to releasing acreage, the administration also has given the go-ahead to several specific mining projects. In August, the administration approved a modification project for Navajo Transitional Energy Company's (NTEC) (Farmington, New Mexico) Antelope Mine in Wyoming, unlocking an additional 857 acres and 14.5 million tons of thermal coal. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the related project reports.
NTEC also made news this week when it was the only bidder in what was touted to be the biggest U.S. coal sale in more than a decade, which ended up with disappointing results for the administration. The auction was to unlock 167 tons of coal in southeastern Montana, and NTEC's bid of $186,000 equated to less than one-tenth of a penny per ton. Federal officials have not indicated whether they will accept the sole bid, but rather quickly postponed another coal auction covering about 441 million tons in Wyoming.
The disappointing Montana results may be indirectly related to another green light by the administration for the expansion of the nearby Spring Creek mine, also operated by NTEC, which extends the mine's lifespan by 16 years and grows production to approximately 39.9 million tons per year of federal coal. That project is just kicking off and expected to be completed next year. Subscribers can view the project report. The Associated Press notes that five coal-fired plants using fuel from the Spring Creek mine are scheduled to stop burning coal within the next decade, which perhaps led to the NTEC's low bid for the additional Montana acreage. The administration could potentially buoy the regional coal market by ordering some of these plants to remain open as it has done with a coal-fired plant in Michigan and gas- and oil-fired plant in Pennsylvania.
The Trump administration has paved the way for other mining projects such as the expansion of the Freedom coal mine North Dakota, which allows production to increase from a nameplate 16 million tons per year (although it currently produces less) to up to 24 million tons per year and extending the mine's operation to 2045. (See project report.)
Another North Dakota mine has been given the go-ahead to expand by the Trump administration, again reversing a Biden-era decision. This is the expansion of the Falkirk mine in central North Dakota, which supplies fuel for the state's biggest operational power plant, the coal-fired Coal Creek Station, which has a nameplate capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Power Plant Database can click here for the plant profile. The administration extended the Falkirk Mine's footprint to include an additional 800 federal acres, boosting production by more than 1 million tons per year. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the project report.
On the whole, the current White House has been very supportive of U.S. mining projects, and its furthering of the development of Alaska's resource extraction represents significant movement for a project that has been in limbo for more than 40 years.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Database can click here to view reports for many of the projects discussed in this article and click here for the related plant profiles.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
The Ambler Mining District sits in north-central Alaska, far removed from most basic infrastructure. The area contains copper along with other critical minerals such as cobalt, zinc, gallium, germanium and more that comprise key components of important consumer and defense products, including many types of electronics and electric vehicles. Access to the area by rail or barge has been deemed unfeasible, and therefore the access road into the district is considered the best means to facilitate development.
Construction of the road itself has a checkered past, and like so many other recent projects, has been on the receiving end of alternating rejections and approvals that have come in the Trump-Biden-Trump transitions experienced at the White House. Alaskan agencies ordered the road to be built as far back as 1980, when the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANCILA) included a provision requiring the federal government to permit right-of-way access while keeping conservation objectives in mind. That year, President Jimmy Carter signed the bill into law in a move labeled "The Great Compromise," which granted access to resource development in the state while protecting more than 100 million acres for conservation.
Construction of the access road to the Ambler district was part of that bill, but the project ran into problems with federal regulators. As the road crossed areas managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), it was subject to review under the National Environmental Policy Act. This effectively kept the road and future development of the Ambler Mining District tied up in disputes, conflicting legal interpretations and other challenges that kept the project in limbo for decades.
In 2020, in the final year of the first Trump administration, the Ambler project's long-rusted wheels were greased, and the BLM performed an environmental review with positive results for the project. The agency released a supportive environmental impact statement (EIS) selecting the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities' 211-mile route. However, the decision was challenged in courts by environmental and native groups, and the change in administrations from Trump to Biden brought a re-evaluation of the project, resulting in a supplemental environmental impact statement issued in April 2024. In this revised review, the BLM found that 66 communities as well as the area's caribou and fish on which they subsist would be adversely affected by the road. The BLM and National Park Service opted that no action be taken on the project, and its permits were revoked, effectively killing the project.
Except it wasn't really dead. Enter the second Trump administration, and deeming the project to be a matter of public interest, the White House directed the relevant government agencies to reissue permits for the road's construction, at the same time taking a stake in one of the companies that will develop the site.
Ambler Metals LLC (Fairbanks, Alaska) was formed in February 2020, a few months before the first Trump administration's initial approval of the project. The company is a joint venture of Canada's Trilogy Metals (Vancouver) and Australia's South32 Limited (Perth). Upon issuing the order, the administration announced that it had invested $35.6 million in Trilogy for a 10% stake in the company, with the option to purchase an additional 7.5%. The ownership stake comes under the auspices of the recently rechristened Department of War. In a similar move last month, the Department of Energy took a 5% stake in Canadian miner Lithium Americas (Vancouver) as well as a 5% stake in the Thacker Pass lithium mine the company is developing in Nevada. For more details, see September 25, 2025, article - White House Seeks Stake in Canadian Lithium Miner.
No timeline has been provided for when the road may be completed, allowing the development of the Ambler Mining District in earnest. Industrial Info's coverage of the mining development in its Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Metals & Minerals Project Database lists separate projects for the mine and mill, diesel-fueled power plant and water-treatment facility. While final plans are dependent on further exploration and feasibility results, existing plans suggest a 30 million-ton-per-year open-pit mine with a 10,000-ton-per-day flotation processing plant, resulting in approximately 149 million pounds per year of copper, 173 million tons per of zinc, along with varying amounts of other critical minerals. Subscribers can click here for the related project reports.
This most recent approval of a mining project joins several other U.S. mining sites and projects that have been opened up and given the green light this year by the White House. Most of these approvals involve coal extraction. Late last month, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said his department was opening 13.1 million acres of federal lands for coal leasing, reversing a Biden-era pause in federal coal leases. The areas include parts of North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. Also last month, the BLM announced the lease sale of more than 14,000 acres of metallurgical coal acreage in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, to Warrior Met Coal Incorporated (Brookwood, Alabama).
In addition to releasing acreage, the administration also has given the go-ahead to several specific mining projects. In August, the administration approved a modification project for Navajo Transitional Energy Company's (NTEC) (Farmington, New Mexico) Antelope Mine in Wyoming, unlocking an additional 857 acres and 14.5 million tons of thermal coal. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the related project reports.
NTEC also made news this week when it was the only bidder in what was touted to be the biggest U.S. coal sale in more than a decade, which ended up with disappointing results for the administration. The auction was to unlock 167 tons of coal in southeastern Montana, and NTEC's bid of $186,000 equated to less than one-tenth of a penny per ton. Federal officials have not indicated whether they will accept the sole bid, but rather quickly postponed another coal auction covering about 441 million tons in Wyoming.
The disappointing Montana results may be indirectly related to another green light by the administration for the expansion of the nearby Spring Creek mine, also operated by NTEC, which extends the mine's lifespan by 16 years and grows production to approximately 39.9 million tons per year of federal coal. That project is just kicking off and expected to be completed next year. Subscribers can view the project report. The Associated Press notes that five coal-fired plants using fuel from the Spring Creek mine are scheduled to stop burning coal within the next decade, which perhaps led to the NTEC's low bid for the additional Montana acreage. The administration could potentially buoy the regional coal market by ordering some of these plants to remain open as it has done with a coal-fired plant in Michigan and gas- and oil-fired plant in Pennsylvania.
The Trump administration has paved the way for other mining projects such as the expansion of the Freedom coal mine North Dakota, which allows production to increase from a nameplate 16 million tons per year (although it currently produces less) to up to 24 million tons per year and extending the mine's operation to 2045. (See project report.)
Another North Dakota mine has been given the go-ahead to expand by the Trump administration, again reversing a Biden-era decision. This is the expansion of the Falkirk mine in central North Dakota, which supplies fuel for the state's biggest operational power plant, the coal-fired Coal Creek Station, which has a nameplate capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Power Plant Database can click here for the plant profile. The administration extended the Falkirk Mine's footprint to include an additional 800 federal acres, boosting production by more than 1 million tons per year. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the project report.
On the whole, the current White House has been very supportive of U.S. mining projects, and its furthering of the development of Alaska's resource extraction represents significant movement for a project that has been in limbo for more than 40 years.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Database can click here to view reports for many of the projects discussed in this article and click here for the related plant profiles.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
