Practical Investment Analysis for the New Energy Economy

Back in the 1500s, someone picked up a dull black rock off the ground in Borrowdale, England and treated it like a crown jewel.

But the value here wasn’t because it was pretty.

Why? Well, because this little rock happened to be graphite, and graphite meant leverage — better casting, better machining, better industry… and of course, better war.

That’s the part modern readers always forget, because empires don’t rise and fall from fancy speeches.

That’s why today’s graphite story hits like a time capsule cracking open.

For the first time in nearly 70 years, the U.S. is bringing a new domestic graphite supply online. Now, I think our country finally realized it can’t run tomorrow’s technology on yesterday’s import assumptions.

That lesson has hit home, and the urgency to boost our domestic output of strategic minerals now has a clock attached to it.

We recently talked about President Trump’s proclamation that framed processed critical minerals and their derivative products as a national security risk, then set a 180-day window for negotiations and follow-on action if imports still threaten supply resilience.

Are you prepared?

Look, the fastest way to tell this isn’t “just talk” is to take one quick look around you.

Then you’ll start seeing real supply change come onboard and put to good use.

Last week, Amazon struck a deal with Rio Tinto’s Nuton venture to buy copper cathode produced in Arizona — copper destined for AWS component manufacturers and the physical buildout of AI data centers.

We’re talking about something far more important than mere symbolism.

This is a hyperscaler going upstream and locking in a domestic supply stream of the most important electrical conductor on Earth — because we all know data centers don’t run on optimism.

No, dear reader, they run on wires, transformers, busbars, and miles upon miles of copper.

But Rio’s angle matters too. Nuton uses bioleaching technology to pull copper from lower-grade ore that would normally get ignored, essentially turning an “uneconomic rock” directly into usable output.

Yet, this is just one of many events taking place.

There’s also that quiet Achilles heel: Graphite. 

Up in northern New York, graphite processing is already underway around the Empire State Mines complex, with plans to scale production dramatically as the operation ramps up.

The Kilbourne Graphite Project is now framed as a fully integrated mine-and-processing buildout, targeting up to 40,000 tonnes per year of graphite concentrate and purified products for industrial, energy, and defense applications.

That’s the real story.

Not the “we found graphite” bit, but rather the fact that we’re bolstering the United States’ ability to refine and process raw material.

Remember, mining without the refining process makes us just as dependent on China as before.

We’re seeing it in uranium, too, and you can bet the timing is no accident.

Over in New Mexico, Laramide’s U.S. unit has filed a Mine Operations and Reclamation Plan for the La Jara Mesa project, a major procedural step toward restarting uranium production in a state that once defined the industry.

Look, if graphite is the battery input, and copper is the wiring, uranium is the reminder that the AI boom doesn’t just need chips — it needs an incredible amount of secure baseload power to fuel it.

Is it me, or are we seeing example after example that proves the U.S. mining sector is undergoing a renaissance. Even a few years ago, nobody had any idea what antimony was, or how it was used.

Today, that reality has been realized.

It’s what led Perpetua to hit a groundbreaking milestone at its Stibnite Gold Project in Idaho, a redevelopment story built around gold — but with antimony sitting at the center of the strategic rationale.

Put these together and you can see the pattern emerging…

Trump’s “mining renaissance” isn’t one project.

No, what we’re seeing is a chain reaction: offtake agreements, processing restarts, permitting acceleration, and real production plans hitting the ground while the 180-day countdown runs in the background.

They’re Replacing Your Dollars — Quietly

While you’re distracted by headlines and hype, the real power players are making their move.

Central banks are hoarding gold. Wall Street is cozying up to tokenized assets. And insiders are prepping for the end of fiat as we know it.

That’s where NatGold comes in — a blockchain-backed digital token, secured by real, in-ground gold. No mining. No middlemen. Just verifiable, audited gold… before the institutions close the door on you.

This is the escape hatch they hope you miss. Because once NatGold goes fully institutional, retail access won’t come with a discount — it’ll come with a waiting list.

The smart money isn’t in crypto or cash. It’s in NatGold.

[Click here to beat them to it.]

Make no mistake, this is what the early phase of a domestic mining rebuild looks like, and not just some dramatic flag-planting ceremony.

We’ve got copper flowing out of Arizona into the AI buildout, graphite moving from a U.S. rock deposit into real processing lines, with scale-up plans already mapped, and uranium projects shaking off the administrative dust and getting their operating plans back into the system.

But as this accelerates, the market won’t reward “critical minerals” as a theme.

The rewards will flow to the U.S. mining stocks that can actually deliver supply. They’re the ones that have the permits stamped, processing routes laid out, credible timelines on development, and of course, the cash to bring their resources to the surface.

That’s where the established miners come into play, and the next phase doesn’t belong to the loudest press release.

It’ll belong to the producers and developers already holding strategic deposits, already building the downstream steps, and already positioned to become domestic choke points for tomorrow’s technology supply chain.

Once Washington starts treating minerals like Borrowdale treated graphite, the value immediately shifts quickly from narrative to tonnage.

And these are the first mining stocks I’m looking at right away.