US Progress in Critical Minerals Processing

Posted date/time:April 14, 2026

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Duncan Wood and Mahnaz Khan discuss the mineral processing and mining gap, and what the Trump administration is prioritizing to close it.

In this edition of Wilson in One, Visiting Fellow Duncan Wood and Silverado Policy Accelerator's Mahnaz Khan discuss the mineral processing and mining gap, and what the Trump administration is prioritizing to close it.

Transcript

Duncan Wood: Is the second Trump administration finally tackling the processing and refining gap, or are we still too over-focused, do you think, on extraction alone?

Mahnaz Khan: I think this administration, again, when it comes to rare earths, is very focused on the processing of rare earths and the end product, which are the magnets, which is smart. You always want to make sure that those minerals that you are processing are going into a downstream component that is also made in the United States.