New Delhi: The Trump administration’s agreement with Kazakhstan on 6 November 2025, granting an American company access to one of the world’s largest untapped tungsten reserves, has come under scrutiny after a New York Times report has flagged conflict of interest.
The American daily reported on 28 June that investors linked to the families of US President Donald Trump and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick invested in entities connected to the tungsten mining project.
The agreement, which marks a significant step in Washington’s efforts to reduce its dependence on China for critical minerals, centres on Kaz Resources—a US-backed mining company established to develop the Kazakhstan tungsten project—which plans to build a tungsten mine near the village of Unrek in central Kazakhstan.
Ahead of the agreement, the US Export-Import Bank and the US International Development Finance Corporation issued letters of interest indicating they could provide up to $1.6 billion in financing for the project, although the funding still requires additional approvals. According to the company, the mine could eventually supply around 12,000 metric tonnes of tungsten annually, roughly matching current US imports of the critical mineral.
The project is part of a broader US effort to strengthen ties with resource-rich Central Asia as competition with China increasingly centres on critical minerals. Home to sizable reserves of strategic minerals and capable of producing and processing 25 of the 60 commodities on the US critical minerals list, Kazakhstan has become an increasingly important partner in Washington’s supply chain strategy.
Reflecting Washington’s growing engagement, Sergio Gor, who now serves as the US Ambassador to India, visited Almaty in October 2025 alongside Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau to discuss bilateral cooperation, including critical minerals. Gor returned to Kazakhstan on 11-12 June 2026 for the C5+1 Dialogue on Critical Minerals, where the US and the five Central Asian republics discussed expanding cooperation on mining, processing, and investment.
Tungsten has become increasingly important after China imposed restrictions on exports of tungsten and other critical minerals, tightening global supply of a metal widely used in missile warheads, fighter aircraft, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing.
According to a May report by BMO Capital Markets cited by the New York Times, the Trump administration has conditionally or finally approved about $18.6 billion in financing for 60 critical mineral projects worldwide since returning to office, as Washington seeks to diversify supply chains away from China.
According to the investigation, the negotiations gained momentum in late September 2025, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at New York’s St. Regis Hotel, with Trump joining the discussions by phone.
On 31 October 2025, investors participating through a financing structure involving Dominari Securities—a firm partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump—acquired a 20 percent stake in a corporate entity linked to the Kazakhstan project.
The US-Kazakhstan agreement was signed six days later, on 6 November. In October, Cantor Fitzgerald, controlled by the Lutnick family, also helped raise $210 million for another company involved in the broader transaction.
Either the Trump family or Cantor Fitzgerald have financial ties to at least 14 companies pursuing critical minerals projects, the New York Times found in its review of federal filings.
Collectively, those companies have either received offers of federal financial assistance or have pending permit applications before the commerce department, with the Trump administration providing or considering more than $8.9 billion in support, according to the investigation.
The White House and the commerce department rejected suggestions that government decisions had been influenced by family business interests, maintaining that the administration’s actions were guided solely by national and economic security priorities.
“The only special interest guiding the Trump administration’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to the New York Times.
“Securing and reshoring America’s critical supply chains has been a top priority for President Trump, and Secretary Lutnick, who, along with the rest of the administration, continue to take historic action to safeguard America’s national and economic security,” he added.
Executives involved in the Kazakhstan project also denied receiving political favours, saying discussions on the venture had begun during the Biden administration and that the project reflects a long-term strategic effort to secure alternative sources of critical minerals.
“I can see how the optics might be disturbing to some people,” Pini Althaus, founder and executive chairman of Kaz Resources, said to the New York Times. “But that’s unfortunate because this company and this project go way beyond any one president, let alone any family.”
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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