Rare Earth Stocks Sink as US Said to Move Away from Critical Mineral Price Floors

The Trump administration is stepping back from plans to guarantee a minimum price for U.S. critical minerals projects, Reuters reported late Wednesday, sending shares of rare earth companies sharply lower in premarket trading on Thursday.

USA Rare Earth fell 9%; NioCorp Developments, Critical Metals, United States Antimony, and Ramaco Resources fell 7%; The Metals Company, MP Materials, and Energy Fuels fell 5%; Lithium Americas and Trilogy Metals fell 4%; American Resources fell 3%.

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 reviews a price floor extended to MP Materials last year, 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 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, according to this account. "Don't come to us expecting that."