Key Takeaways:
The US Army will lease land at four military bases to mining companies for critical mineral processing, part of a Trump administration push to reduce dependence on China for materials essential to weapons production.
"This initiative turns idle military real estate into a strategic asset for national security," said a Pentagon official familiar with the Enhanced Use Leasing program, which allows the Army to monetize underutilized land while addressing supply chain vulnerabilities.
The agreements involve REalloys Inc., Titan Mining Corp., ioneer Ltd. and Energy Exploration Technologies Inc., which will build facilities handling rare earth minerals, graphite, lithium and boron, according to people familiar with the matter. The Army issued a Request for Information in December 2025 seeking companies interested in leasing land for mineral processing, with antimony trisulfide — a key ingredient in bullet primers — as the initial focus.
China dominates global production of many of these minerals and has shown willingness to weaponize that control. Beijing halted antimony trisulfide shipments in 2021, depleting Army stockpiles and exposing a critical vulnerability in ammunition supply chains. The Pentagon has already invested $30 million in a modular refinery capable of producing 7 to 10 metric tons of antimony trisulfide annually, now being tested at Idaho National Laboratory with Perpetua Resources as a key partner.
The Army's move is the latest escalation in a broader bipartisan push to rebuild domestic processing capacity for materials deemed critical to national security. China controls more than 60 percent of global rare earth refining and an even larger share of graphite and antimony processing. Beijing's export restrictions on rare earths during the trade war underscored the leverage those supply chains provide.
Perpetua Resources, which operates an antimony project in Idaho, is the most directly exposed company to the Army's initiative. The firm's domestic supply chain is already integrated into the Pentagon's plans, and government contracts in the defense sector tend to be sticky once established. The $30 million modular refinery represents a proof of concept that the Army hopes to scale across multiple minerals and locations.
The $1.45 Trillion Defense Backdrop
The mineral onshoring push comes as the Pentagon proposed a $1.45 trillion military budget amid the ongoing US conflict with Iran. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon announced a $1.5 trillion investment fund for critical minerals and technologies last year, saying "it has become painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals."
The Enhanced Use Leasing program lets the military generate revenue from idle acreage while addressing a national security vulnerability. Military installations already have infrastructure, security and proximity to transportation networks, reducing the cost and timeline for building new processing capacity.
For investors, the key question is whether the government will provide long-term procurement commitments to justify the capital-intensive nature of mineral processing. Scaling domestic capacity across multiple minerals will require significantly more than the $30 million invested in the antimony refinery. Government procurement can be unpredictable — budgets shift and administrations change priorities — but the bipartisan consensus around supply chain security suggests sustained support.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
