By Ernest Scheyder and Divya Rajagopal
(Reuters) -Former Newmont executive David Copley has been tapped to oversee the mining portfolio for the U.S. National Energy Dominance Council, two sources familiar with the appointment said, making him the highest-ranking federal official shaping domestic minerals policy.
Created last month by President Donald Trump, the council’s mandate is to boost not only U.S. oil and gas production, but also the extraction and processing of lithium, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy.
China’s near-total control of the critical minerals industry has long rankled Trump and his predecessors. Despite that, the U.S. has not had a senior official overseeing federal mining policy since the Bureau of Mines was closed in 1996 amid a round of budget cuts.
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mining policy is currently administered through multiple agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and their priorities often conflict.
Copley will be the senior White House official on mining, advising Trump and other officials on permitting reform and helping to coordinate the executive branch’s oversight of the industry.
Reuters reported last week that Trump was considering naming a point person to coordinate U.S. mining policy.
Trump separately on Thursday signed an executive order directing a review of which federal lands – including those controlled by the Pentagon – could be used for minerals processing, among other steps aimed at boosting domestic mining.
The White House referred questions on Copley’s appointment to the U.S. Department of the Interior, which was not immediately available to comment. Copley was not immediately available to comment.
Newmont declined to comment.
An economist by training, Copley is an intelligence officer with the U.S. Navy Reserve and worked on Iraq-related issues for the State Department in Trump’s first term.
He previously held roles at U.S. Silica, a minerals producer acquired last year by private equity firm Apollo Global Management, and Active Minerals International, a producer of kaolin clay for ceramics.
Copley consulted for Boston Consulting Group earlier in his career and served as an intelligence officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Copley until recently had worked in a strategic development role for Denver-based Newmont, the world’s largest gold miner by production with a market value of $54 billion and mines across 13 countries.
The miner has been also expanding into copper production after it bought Australian rival Newcrest in 2022.
Abigail Hunter, executive director of SAFE’s Center for Critical Minerals Strategy, said she was glad to see “someone with practical mining expertise” be the administration’s point person for mining, a role that her think tank had lobbied officials to create.
“A diffuse approach makes it harder to align policy priorities,” said Hunter.
“Having someone in this position on the council can help cement a unified federal strategy.”
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder and Divya Rajagopal; additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Veronica Brown, Chris Reese and Jamie Freed)
