Washington and mining seem to be crossing paths more often lately

Feels like critical minerals have slowly moved from being a mining topic to a policy topic. Over the last few years, we've had the CHIPS Act, DOE funding programs, Section 232 copper reviews, critical mineral partnerships, and now more people with government and policy backgrounds appearing around the sector. Makes sense when you think about it. Copper touches power grids, semis, AI infrastructure, defense and manufacturing. Eventually the same conversations start attracting diplomats, regulators and industry people. That's why I found it interesting that NREDF recently added Katie Zacharia to its advisory board. Before that, the company added retired Colonel Mark Calabrese and Kristi Noem. Boards matter at early stage to ensure smooth transistion from exploration to production later on. does make me wonder if critical minerals are gradually becoming more of a policy ecosystem than a pure commodity business. Feels very different from the mining stories of 10 years ago.