Exclusive-US moves away from critical mineral price floors, sources say
Jan 28 (Reuters) - The Trump administration is stepping back from plans to guarantee a minimum price for U.S. critical minerals projects, a tacit acknowledgment of a lack of congressional funding and the complexity of setting market pricing, multiple sources told Reuters.
The shift, which comes as a U.S. Senate committee is reviewing a price floor extended last year to MP Materials, marks a reversal from commitments made to industry and could set Washington apart from G7 partners discussing some form of joint price support or related measures to bolster production of critical minerals used in electric vehicles, semiconductors, defense systems and consumer electronics.
At a closed-door meeting earlier this month hosted by a Washington think tank, two senior Trump officials told U.S. minerals executives that their projects would need to prove their financial independence without government price support, three attendees told Reuters.
"We're not here to prop you guys up," Audrey Robertson, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy and head of its Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, told the executives. "Don't come to us expecting that."
Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-us-moves-away-critical-224433360.html
