RMI's engagements span defense-critical mineral projects across allied nations — from sovereign pathway development through multi-billion dollar portfolio construction for U.S. government program consideration.
RMI measures its work by one standard: whether a qualifying critical mineral project reaches the U.S. government programs designed to fund, offtake, and develop it. The engagements below represent that work — from opening the first structured channel between a sovereign nation and U.S. program offices, to aggregating a $3.5B multi-mineral defense supply portfolio sized to the Office of Strategic Capital's mandate.
All engagements are presented in anonymized form. Country identities and partner names are withheld; mineral categories, program vehicles, structures, and outcomes are accurate.
A critical minerals producer in an allied Indo-Pacific nation held a significant position in a strategic battery and defense metal — but had no structured pathway to U.S. government capital. Engaged at pre-feasibility, the project needed two things simultaneously: a near-term revenue anchor to validate the economics, and a longer-term route to fund modern processing capacity. Conventional project finance was not positioned to deliver either, despite the asset's direct relevance to allied supply chains and its potential to redirect output away from Chinese offtake.
RMI structured the approximately $900M project into two phases. Phase 1 centered on a Guaranteed Purchase Agreement providing on the order of $750M in contracted revenue over a multi-year term — creating the bankable revenue anchor the project required. Phase 2 positioned a potential U.S. government equity co-investment to fund capital expenditure for a state-of-the-art processing facility. RMI carried the project from pre-feasibility through a completed term sheet and advanced it to formal presentation before the Office of Strategic Capital for review and funding determination.
Engagement to term sheet in six months. OSC presentation reached 60 days later — an eight-month total path against a typical unassisted timeline of 18–24 months. Funding determination is ongoing. The structure positions the project to redirect 6,000 MT of high-grade annual output away from Chinese offtake toward U.S. and allied supply chains, and to strengthen U.S.-aligned processing capacity in a strategically important allied nation.
A resource-rich allied nation in Sub-Saharan Africa held world-class but largely undeveloped rare earth and critical mineral deposits — and had no pathway to engage the U.S. government on them. Existing U.S. critical minerals initiatives in Africa had concentrated on a small set of other states, leaving this nation outside the strategic conversation despite comparable resource value. The nation was exporting raw ore to foreign — largely PRC-linked — processors, capturing almost none of the downstream value. A new national mandate to add value domestically gave it the intent to change course but no means to act on it, even as competing foreign interests courted the same resources.
RMI built the pathway that did not exist. Working from the ground up, RMI established a sovereign-level engagement spanning the nation's mining and finance ministries through to Presidential level. In partnership with those ministries, RMI co-developed a Phase 1 in-country processing facility proposal — on the order of $250–350M — and facilitated a sovereign Letter of Interest from the Ministry of Finance to the U.S. Export-Import Bank for a sovereign loan to fund it. The structure drew on EXIM Project Vault financing and positioned the nation as an allied-tier supplier to the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve.
From initial Presidential outreach to a submitted sovereign EXIM Letter of Interest in approximately four months, with Presidential-level engagement continuing. The engagement established the nation's first structured channel to U.S. government critical minerals programs, positioned it to capture downstream processing value rather than export raw ore, opened a non-PRC-dependent allied source of rare earth and critical minerals for U.S. industry and the strategic reserve, and deepened a U.S. strategic partnership in a contested region.
The Office of Strategic Capital had set a clear mandate: prioritize single, large-scale projects — on the order of $1B and above — capable of materially closing U.S. critical mineral supply chain deficiencies. A U.S.-aligned partner nation in Southern Africa held government-approved concessions spanning rare earth elements, tungsten, chromium, and lithium — but each component, considered individually, fell short of OSC's threshold and carried the resource, financing, and offtake risks that prevent critical mineral projects from reaching the U.S. government at all.
RMI aggregated the partner's multi-mineral position into a unified $2.7B defense supply portfolio sized to OSC's mandate. Rather than seek equity or grants against unproven resources, RMI structured the portfolio around long-term guaranteed purchase agreements on a take-or-pay basis for the full output of each mineral stream — directing U.S. government financing at processing facilities and infrastructure, and de-risking it with contracted revenue. The structure converted a set of individually sub-threshold opportunities into one threshold-meeting, defense-grade supply program covering four USGS-listed critical minerals essential to munitions, aerospace, and permanent magnet production.
Components structured by RMI include ferrochrome smelter reactivation at 500,000 tonnes per year, rare earth element processing targeting 7,300 tonnes per year of separated oxides including NdPr, dysprosium, and terbium, tungsten supply structured for armor-piercing munitions and high-temperature alloy applications, and lithium carbonate production of 18,250 tonnes per year for military battery and energy storage systems.
The portfolio is currently being presented to the Office of Strategic Capital for funding consideration. As structured, it would deliver assured, traceable U.S. supply across four USGS-listed critical minerals — reducing dependence on adversarial processing, countering foreign export controls imposed in 2025, and anchoring allied non-PRC supply lines for the U.S. defense industrial base.
The United States is over 90% import-reliant for manganese — a mineral essential to high-strength steel, armor-grade alloys, and the battery chemistries powering military electrification. A U.S.-aligned partner nation in North Africa held a strategically significant manganese position: a high-grade pyrolusite deposit validated for both metallurgical and battery-grade end uses, with direct port access and an existing U.S. Free Trade Agreement providing IRA compliance. The asset had reached sufficient technical maturity for strategic partnership engagement, but lacked the structured U.S. government pathway to convert technical readiness into a bankable offtake and financing program.
RMI structured an $800M engagement anchored by long-term guaranteed take-or-pay purchase agreements for the full output of high-grade manganese concentrate and battery-grade High-Purity Manganese Sulfate Monohydrate — the processed form required for lithium-ion battery cathode manufacturing. The structure aligned directly with the bilateral U.S.-partner critical minerals framework signed in February 2026 and was positioned for submission to the Office of Strategic Capital and Export-Import Bank under Project Vault. RMI coordinated product validation with U.S. testing partners, confirmed IRA FTA compliance, and structured the Phase 2 HPMSM processing pathway as an integrated component of the capital request.
The engagement is currently being presented to U.S. government program offices for funding consideration. Contracted volumes scale from 40,000 MT in Year 1 to 80,000 MT annually at full production — delivered via established port infrastructure on shorter Atlantic transit routes than competing supplier nations. The structure positions the partner nation as a compliant, non-PRC allied manganese source for U.S. battery supply chains and defense alloy production, with the Phase 2 HPMSM facility establishing in-country processing capacity that captures downstream value rather than exporting raw ore.
If you have a qualifying critical mineral asset and are seeking structured access to U.S. government capital, offtake, or technology transfer programs, RMI invites you to begin the conversation.
Discuss Your Project with Our TeamEngagements are confidential. Initial consultations are by referral or direct inquiry.