Washington, D.C., June 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Former government advisor Jim Rickards says one of the most telling shifts in Washington is also one of the least discussed: the federal government has begun taking direct positions in American mining companies. In a new free presentation, he explains what that could mean for the country's industrial and security future.
The Shift
The administration's resource push began on day one, when the President signed Executive Order 14153, "Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential," directing agencies to expedite permitting and rescind prior restrictions. Federal financing and equity stakes followed across multiple agencies.
The government's Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals ties U.S. import dependence directly to national-security and defense-readiness risks, and added copper, silver, and rhenium for the first time. Rickards reads the federal stake-taking as the logical next step in that security-driven strategy.
The pattern is already visible in the market. After the administration took a 10% stake in Trilogy Metals in October 2025 via a $35.6 million investment, the stock surged roughly 250%, part of a string of government positions that also included Lithium Americas, MP Materials, and Intel. Rickards argues those moves form a sequence, not a series of isolated events.
The Scale of What Could Come Next
Rickards is not focused on the deals already announced. He is focused on what he believes comes next, and he argues the scale of it dwarfs everything Washington has moved on so far.
The deposit he tracks contains an estimated 82 million ounces of gold, 371 million ounces of silver, 75 billion pounds of copper, and significant quantities of rhenium and molybdenum, a metal essential to military jet engines, nuclear reactors, and high performance steel. He describes it as nearly 20 times larger than the five biggest nearby mines combined, with an estimated $2.7 trillion in total in ground value. A small company holds the full rights to it and currently trades for under $2 per share.
The project has been blocked by environmental restrictions for years. Rickards believes the same executive and legislative machinery now clearing other domestic mineral projects is pointing directly at this one, and that the government cannot credibly pursue a national resource security strategy while leaving the largest deposit of its kind sitting untouched.
Why It Matters to You
When a government moves from setting policy to actually owning pieces of an industry, it is signaling that it considers that industry too important to leave to the market alone. That signal matters to ordinary people because the resources at the center of it: copper, rare earths, and defense metals, sit inside the cars, electronics, and energy infrastructure the whole economy depends on, and the companies that hold them are increasingly part of the broad market.
The question Rickards raises is which resources Washington is positioning around and why now.
About the Presentation
Rickards walks through the government's stake taking pattern, the policy machinery behind it, and the one American deposit he believes sits at the center of it all in a free presentation now available online. Click here to watch.
About Jim Rickards and Paradigm Press
Jim Rickards has advised the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the White House, and the Department of Defense across five decades in government and finance. He was part of the team that shaped the Petrodollar Accord under Nixon, contributed to Reagan administration negotiations during the Iran hostage crisis, and worked alongside Federal Reserve officials during the Long Term Capital Management crisis.
Paradigm Press is one of the most widely read independent financial research publishers in the United States, rated 4.8 stars on Google across more than 1,900 reviews. Free from advertiser influence, Paradigm Press is committed to helping everyday Americans understand the forces shaping their wealth.
Derek Warren Public Relations Manager Paradigm Press Group Email: dwarren@paradigmpressgroup.com
