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Trump Hosts a Roundtable on American Mining at the State Department, Aug. 7, 2026

August 7, 2026 · The White House · 0:36:21

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump convened mining company leaders and educators at the Department of State on August 7, 2026, hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and the National Energy Dominance Council’s executive director at the table. “I’m delighted to be here at the Department of State to announce some of the largest ever investments in American mining,” he said. “We’re putting our miners back to work and we’re reclaiming America’s rightful place as the minerals superpower of the world.”

His figures: the United States lost more than 3,400 mines over the past three decades; over the past 18 months the administration “has signed or approved more than 160 minerals deals worth nearly $40 billion”; new mines are opening “at the fastest pace since the 1950s,” including “the first American rare earth mine in more than 70 years” and the first new aluminum smelter since 1980, “a massive, beautiful job-producing smelter in Oklahoma.” Critical minerals, he said, “are the raw materials of American strength that power everything from advanced weaponry to automobiles, and we want these essential products to be mined, refined, and made right here in the USA.”

Why it matters

Mining and critical minerals sit at the junction of the Energy & Permitting hub’s owners — Burgum’s Interior, Wright’s Energy, and the Commerce and State Departments at this table — and this roundtable is the administration’s consolidated statement of the file: deal count, dollar total, and two “first since” milestones, all dated and checkable.

Scoreboard watch

This is a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard: more than 160 minerals deals worth nearly $40 billion, the first rare-earth mine in over 70 years, and the first new aluminum smelter since 1980. What the scoreboard will check is the deal list and the two projects’ progress against the agencies’ records.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Hosts a Roundtable on American Mining,” August 7, 2026, Washington, DC (official upload, embedded above; the upload’s description places the event in Washington). All figures as stated by the President at the roundtable.