From Critical Mineral to Critical Supply Chain: How to Build, Finance and Scale Domestic Critical Minerals Projects

North America’s critical minerals challenge is no longer simply about identifying resources—it is about turning those resources into reliable, commercially viable supply chains. In this featured session, Gary Evans, Chairman and CEO of United States Antimony, shares lessons from the company’s efforts to build a vertically integrated domestic antimony supply chain and secure both government support and commercial demand. Drawing on United States Antimony’s $245 million DLA contract and $27 million Prototype Support Agreement, Evans will discuss how critical minerals companies can align government priorities, private capital, customer requirements and operational capabilities to move projects from resource to production.

The discussion will explore how companies can identify supply-chain vulnerabilities, control critical bottlenecks, develop qualified products, create demand and use government participation to reduce risk and attract additional private investment.  

Key themes:

• Turning critical-mineral projects into financeable businesses

• Aligning government funding with private capital

• Understanding and addressing domestic supply-chain vulnerabilities

• Building integrated mine-to-product capabilities

• Developing customer demand alongside production capacity

• Using government participation to reduce risk and unlock private investment

• Moving from resources and feasibility studies to qualified, repeatable production at scale