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Tags: doug burgum | donald trump | minerals | mining | australia | environment | china

Doug Burgum to Newsmax: Trump Sparks US Mining Revival

By    |   Monday, 20 October 2025 09:53 PM EDT

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Newsmax on Monday that President Donald Trump's new minerals partnership with Australia marks a turning point in restoring America's industrial strength — and ending U.S. dependence on China for critical resources.

Burgum joined "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE" hours after Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed an $8.5 billion critical minerals agreement at the White House. The deal is aimed at tapping Australia's vast rare-earth reserves as China clamps down on its own mineral exports.

The deal, negotiated over several months, underscores growing U.S.–Australia cooperation to secure supply chains and reduce reliance on Beijing's tightening grip over global mineral processing.

Burgum said Trump's leadership is driving a revival of U.S. mining capacity after years of Democrat neglect.

"With the Trump administration, we can — and with the leadership of President Trump, we will — change all this," Burgum said. "Both Australia and the U.S. have got enormous amounts of resources. America used to be a mining superpower. Australia is today a mining superpower."

Burgum said the minerals deal signed Monday creates a framework for shared investment and processing of key materials such as lithium and gallium, essential to high-tech manufacturing and energy storage. He blamed Democrat administrations for gutting domestic mining education and regulation.

"Last year we graduated 36,000 lawyers in this country. We graduated about 300 people with mining and metallurgical degrees," Burgum said. "Starting with the Obama administration and carried on with the Biden administration, we've killed the mining industry in this country."

The secretary warned that China now controls between 85% and 100% of the world's processing of top-tier minerals — much of it, he said, through operations that exploit workers and devastate the environment in Africa and Southeast Asia.

"They're mining in Indonesia, they're mining in the Congo — destroying the environment, using slave labor," he said. "Then they bring it back to China, they process it, and now they're putting export controls on the rest of the world."

Burgum said Trump's agreement with Australia proves the White House is serious about reclaiming supply-chain security and reviving resource independence.

"President Trump knows we have to secure our supply chains here," Burgum said. "And we've got to mine, baby, mine — not just drill, baby, drill."

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Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Newsmax on Monday that President Donald Trump's new minerals partnership with Australia marks a turning point in restoring America's industrial strength – and ending U.S. dependence on China for critical resources.
doug burgum, donald trump, minerals, mining, australia, environment, china
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2025-53-20
Monday, 20 October 2025 09:53 PM
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