April 22, 2025 - The Trump administration has identified what it described as the first wave of critical minerals mining projects for a transparency initiative within a federal program aimed at streamlining project permitting.

In March, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to increase American minerals production. The National Energy Dominance Council responded by submitting a list of 10 projects, including coal, lithium, antimony, potash, phosphate and copper mines, to be labeled as FAST-41 transparency projects on the Federal Permitting Dashboard.

The move "advances the president's directive to take immediate action to facilitate domestic production of America's vast mineral resources," the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council said in an April 18 news release.

The projects were not classified as FAST-41-covered projects, which would entitle the projects to certain coordination-related benefits and other resources to expedite permitting. Inclusion as a transparency project makes the schedule for various parts of the permitting process publicly available, according to the news release, and ensures stakeholders have up-to-date information on where each project stands in the review process.

Miners frequently bemoan long permitting lead times as obstacles to developing new projects. Globally, the average lead time for mines becoming operational between 2020 and 2024 was 17.8 years, according to an April 3 research update from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The average lead time is 19.1 years in the US.

Among the projects on the list are Rio Tinto Group and BHP Group Ltd.'s Resolution copper mine in Arizona, Perpetua Resources Corp.'s Stibnite gold and antimony mine in Idaho, Warrior Met Coal Inc. mines, Jindalee Lithium Ltd. and Posco Holdings Inc.'s McDermitt lithium mine in Oregon and Albemarle Corp.'s Silver Peak mine in Nevada.

More projects are expected to be added to the list over the next few weeks, according to the Permitting Council, an agency established under the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act in 2015.