Critical minerals and an Oval Office meeting

Background

Pakistan has substantial but largely undeveloped deposits of copper, gold, antimony, rare earth elements and other minerals, notably in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Washington's search for supplies outside China, and Islamabad's search for investment, made minerals a natural focus after the 2025 trade deal.

What happened

On 8 September 2025, at the Prime Minister's House in Islamabad, the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) - a military-run engineering organisation and Pakistan's largest miner of critical minerals - signed a memorandum of understanding with US Strategic Metals (USSM), a Missouri-based processor and recycler. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir witnessed the signing^1,2. The memorandum set out cooperation in exploration, processing and the establishment of refining facilities in Pakistan, including a poly-metallic refinery, with an initial export of readily available minerals such as antimony, copper, gold, tungsten and rare earth elements; it was reported as a $500 million investment^1,2.

On 25 September Trump received Sharif and Munir in the Oval Office, with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio present. The meeting, closed to the press, lasted about an hour and twenty minutes; Sharif praised Trump's role in the India–Pakistan ceasefire, and Trump praised both visitors^3,6. It was the first formal White House meeting between a US president and a Pakistani prime minister since July 2019³. Pakistani officials pitched minerals and investment as the core of a new partnership⁴.

On 2 October Pakistan sent its first consignment of enriched rare earth elements and critical minerals - including antimony, copper concentrate, neodymium and praseodymium - to USSM⁵.

Why it mattered

For Washington, Pakistan offered a potential, if small, source of minerals outside China's control. For Pakistan, minerals offered a way to give the United States a commercial stake in the relationship. Critics in Pakistan questioned the transparency of the arrangements and the role of military-linked bodies; security risks in Balochistan, where separatists attack development projects, and the gap between memoranda and functioning mines remained significant.

Legacy

The minerals partnership became a staple of official descriptions of US–Pakistan ties in 2026, alongside trade, energy and counter-terrorism.