Speaking at this week’s Intermountain Critical Minerals Summit in Salt Lake City in Utah, US, Governor Spencer Cox doubled down on his support for the critical minerals sector, reinforcing a strategy he set in motion nearly two years ago.
“You cannot build a modern electrical grid, advanced aerospace manufacturing, or a resilient domestic economy out of thin air,” Cox says.
“And most importantly, you cannot defend this country without the critical minerals that are the bedrock of American national security.”
In his State of the State address on 23 January 2025, Cox gave a three word message: “We must build.” He reinforced that message this week after nearly two years of work towards fulfilling it.
Cox launched Mission Critical, his mine-to-market pipeline for critical minerals, in January 2026, aiming to make Utah the number one US destination for critical minerals extraction and processing.
Mission Critical outlines a framework under which Utah could meet up to 25% of the country’s critical mineral demand. It also aims to cut the average permitting timeline by 50% and ensure that at least 50% of minerals mined in the state are processed there.
The plan sets goals including approval of five critical minerals projects within 18 months and the creation of a research centre that could become a federally recognised US Critical Minerals National Laboratory.
Cox has been focused on securing the national laboratory for some time, having led trade delegations to both Canada and Australia on 2025 with this pitch.
Why Utah?
Utah has a strong mining industry already and ranked first for investment attractiveness in the Fraser Institute’s 2023 ‘Annual Survey of Mining Companies’.
While it fell to 38th for 2025, the state remains a significant mining jurisdiction.
Cox is focused on driving the industry’s growth, with critical minerals and energy central to that effort.
Utah currently produces 10 of the 60 minerals on the 2025 federal critical minerals list. It is the only domestic producer of beryllium concentrate, accounting for about 55% of global production.
The state is also the only producer of magnesium metal and potassium sulphate, and has the country’s sole operating conventional uranium mill. It hosts one of the nation’s two copper smelters.
In December 2025, Ionic Mineral Technologies announced a major rare earths discovery at its Silicon Ridge project in Utah, describing it as a “domestic, shovel-ready source for a full spectrum of critical minerals”.
The project itself is on state-leased land with active permits. The company says its existing permitted processing facility in Provo could reduce processing bottlenecks and shorten the path to commercial production.
Two years after declaring that “we must build”, Cox is working to turn that slogan into a long-term industrial strategy. Utah is betting that faster approvals, local processing, and targeted investment can make it a cornerstone of the US critical minerals supply chain.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Main image: Unsplash
