- The U.S. government will invest $35.6 million for a 10% stake in Trilogy Metals, with warrants/options to raise its ownership by roughly 7.5% tied to Ambler Road completion.
- The funding supports Trilogy and its 50/50 JV with South32, Ambler Metals, which holds Alaska’s Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects rich in copper and other critical minerals.
- The deal grants the government a board seat for three years and veto rights on Trilogy taking on more than $1 billion in cumulative debt through at least 2029.
- It coincides with federal momentum to re-advance permitting for the 211-mile Ambler Road, a key but contested access route needed to develop the remote mining district.
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In early October 2025, the U.S. government made a landmark move in its strategy toward securing domestic critical minerals by acquiring a strategic stake in Trilogy Metals Inc. The 10% ownership, for $35.6 million, is structured via a binding letter of intent with the Department of War (DoW), including a split of investment directly into Trilogy Metals and via South32 selling down its position. Furthermore, the government holds warrants that may increase its equity by another 7.5%, contingent upon the completion of the Ambler Road infrastructure project—essentially linking financial upside to enabling logistics.
The Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) are among the most prospective undeveloped bases of copper-dominated, polymetallic deposits in North America, located in the remote Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska. Through Ambler Metals LLC (50% Trilogy, 50% South32), the UKMP includes high-grade zones like Arctic (VMS deposit) and Bornite (carbonate replacement deposit), covering ~190,929 hectares. The region also includes other critical minerals: cobalt, zinc, lead, silver, as well as lesser but strategically important ones like gallium and germanium.
Key to unlock this mineral potential is infrastructure. The Ambler Road Project—a 211-mile long access road from the Dalton Highway into the Ambler District—is now being permitted following prior denial due to environmental and indigenous concerns. The road is fundamental for transporting material, enabling development, and thus forms an explicit condition in the investment strategy.
For Trilogy Metals, which as of late 2024 had only five full-time employees and was posting modest operational losses (≈ US$1.7 million over a three-month period ending Aug 31, 2025) the infusion provides not only capital but credibility and institutional backing.
Strategically, this represents a shift in U.S. policy: the federal government is directly taking ownership positions in private mining firms—a move previously rare—to secure critical supply chains for energy, defense, and technology sectors. It also signals a renewed prioritization of domestic resource extraction, even in environmentally sensitive areas, with balancing political, indigenous and environmental opposition likely to follow.
Supporting Notes
- The U.S. Department of War will invest approximately $35.6 million in Trilogy Metals and South32 in total; $17.8 million directly into Trilogy Metals for 8,215,570 units at US$2.17/unit, each unit comprising one share and ¾ of a 10-year warrant exercisable at US$0.01 per share after Ambler Road completion.
- Simultaneously, US$17.8 million will be paid to South32 for its existing ownership—8,215,570 common shares—and a call option providing the government potential purchase of an additional 6,161,678 shares, also exercisable following road completion.
- DoW will have a board seat (one independent third-party director) on Trilogy’s board for three years.
- Trilogy Metals agrees not to incur third-party indebtedness over US$1 billion (cumulatively) without DoW’s written approval until at least January 1, 2029.
- The Ambler Road is proposed as a 211-mile road, industrial-use only, connecting the Ambler Mining District to the Dalton Highway, held by Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA).
- Trilogy Metals holds 50% interest in Ambler Metals LLC, which owns the UKMP. South32 owns the other half. UKMP includes polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide and carbonate replacement deposits (Arctic, Bornite), over roughly 190,929 hectares.
- Trilogy’s recent operating loss: US$1.7 million in the quarter ending August 31, 2025, versus US$1.6 million a year earlier.
- Trilogy’s stock price surged 200-280% on news of the investment and permit reversal; from approximately US$2.09 to upwards of US$7.37 on NYSE during premarket trading.
- White House approval reversed the Biden administration’s earlier decision to block road construction citing environmental and indigenous stakeholder concerns, including risks to caribou and salmon habitat and subsistence usage.
- This represents part of a broader U.S. strategy of acquiring equity stakes in critical mineral producers: e.g., prior stakes in MP Materials, Lithium Americas.