WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The US Defense Department's Office of Strategic Capital has announced the recent execution of its first direct loan to strengthen the U.S. industrial base and protect critical minerals supply chains.
As part of a wider agreement between DoD and MP Materials, OSC provided a $150 million loan to the operator of the U.S. rare earths mine to add heavy rare earth separation capabilities to its existing processing facility in Mountain Pass, California.
The funding for OSC's $150 million loan to MP Materials comes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025. The bill provides OSC with $500 million of credit subsidy funding, creating up to $100 billion in available loan funds specifically for critical minerals production and related industries and projects.
'The Chinese Communist Party has implemented aggressive actions to endanger the global critical minerals supply chain and ultimately undermine American economic and national security,' said Patrick Witt, Acting Director of OSC. 'Since his first term in office, and for decades prior to that as a private citizen, President Trump has been clear that economic security is national security. To that end, the President directed the DoD to use its authorities and capital tools to confront the threat posed by the CCP. This loan is part of the Department's answer to that call and demonstrates our commitment to defeat adversarial attempts at economic coercion and ensure the unmatched superiority of our industrial base and Armed Forces.'
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