Trilogy Metals stock explodes on news of 10% stake by Trump admin and EO ordering permits for Alaska road

Canadian mining company Trilogy Metals’ stock (TMQ) soared in trading on Tuesday after news that the Trump administration is taking a 10% stake in the company.

Trilogy Metals shares jumped more than 250% in the early hours of Tuesday trading after Reuters reported Monday night that the administration is investing in the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company and permitting an access road to a potential mining site.

The administration has invested $35.6 million for a 10% stake in the company, with warrants for a potential additional 7.5% stake, according to Reuters. Trump also signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to permit construction of an access road to Alaska’s Ambler Mining District, which contains “extensive deposits of copper, silver, gold, lead, cobalt, and other strategic metals,” according to a White House press release.

“The decision finds that the road is in the public interest given our need for access to domestic critical minerals, and there is no economically feasible and prudent alternative route,” the release said.

The project had previously been shot down by the Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management, which objected on the basis of negative impacts to the environment and native tribal communities. The White House noted that measures such as caribou protection policies will be in place to mitigate the road’s impact.

The road, known as the Ambler Access Project, would open up a path to an area of northern Alaska that has been surveyed as a prospective mineral-rich site for mining, with large deposits of copper, cobalt, and other critical metals. There is no defined timeline for the project yet.

Copper futures (HG=F) gained more than 1% on the news. The spot price of cobalt, which has been elevated since March due to supply restrictions by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, remained largely flat.

Trilogy Metals, trading firmly in penny stock territory before Monday night’s news, is strongly positioned to gain from construction of the access road. The company owns a 50% stake in Ambler Mining, a joint venture between Trilogy and mining company South32 Limited that holds the mineral rights to the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP), one of several forecast mining sites in the region.

Mineral rights give a company or individual legal claim to underground resources, such as metals or oil and gas deposits. They are separate from land rights, which encompass the surface itself.

The stake in Trilogy is the latest in what is becoming a line of investments by the Trump administration in resource extraction companies, as the president has made the domestic supply chain buildout of critical minerals a top priority.

Most recently, the administration announced a 10% stake in Lithium Americas Corp (LAC), the operator of what is set to be the largest lithium mine in the Western Hemisphere, in September. Over the summer, the Department of Defense announced a $400 million investment in MP Materials (MP), which operates the mine in the US of rare earth metals used in industrial magnets.

These stakes have also extended past the critical minerals and metals sector. In August, the administration announced an investment of $8.9 billion in semiconductor manufacturer Intel (INTC).

The administration has also thrown its weight behind the development of the Resolution copper mining project in Arizona, which will be the largest copper mine in North America if it is developed as planned.

Much of the focus with these investments has been on attempts to counter Beijing’s control of the minerals and metals market. China produces more than 40,000 metric tons per year of lithium, a key component of batteries that power electric vehicles, and refines 65% or more of the world’s supply of the metal, compared to the less than 3% share in the US.

Prior to the Defense Department’s investment, MP Materials’ biggest shareholder and customer was a Chinese company called Shenghe Resources. Conditions of the investment included a ban on exports of the mine’s critical minerals to China due to their use in manufacturing US weapons systems, especially since China has largely dominated the market for such minerals.

The stakes also come as demand for rare earth metals and other metals crucial to the energy transition is quickly rising. While a basket of the metals has been largely volatile throughout the year due to tariff policy and international supply chain chokes, the International Energy Agency has predicted that demand for lithium will grow by 400% by 2040, while copper and cobalt will see demand increases of 30% and 50%, respectively.

Metals such as lithium, copper, silver, and aluminum are also key components of the hardware powering the AI and data center boom — an industry expected to continue its significant growth and resource demand. The materials have seen some of the biggest gains throughout the commodities world in 2025, according to research from investment bank Macquarie.

“The energy transition remains the major thematic demand differentiator,” Macquarie analysts wrote in a note describing the bank’s commodities outlook.

Jake Conley is a breaking news reporter covering US equities for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @byjakeconley or email him at jake.conley@yahooinc.com.

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