NB News & Events

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.REDIRECTING CAPITAL:The U.S. Department of the Interior announced a landmark agreement with TotalEnergiesfor the company to redirect capital from offshore wind leases toward natural gas projects. TotalEnergies has committed to invest approximately $1B -the value of its renounced offshore wind leases-in oil and natural gas and LNG production in the United States. Following their new investment, the United States will reimburse the company dollar-for-dollar, up to the amount they paid in lease purchases for offshore wind. Additionally, in light of the national security concerns, TotalEnergies has pledged not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States, the department said. For its part, TotalEnergies will invest $928M, on the following projects in 2026: The development of Train 1 to 4 of Rio Grande LNG plant in Texas; The development of upstream conventional oil in Gulf of America and of shale gas production.Meanwhile, TotalEnergies confirmed it has signed settlement agreements with the United States Department of the Interior, or DOI, to relinquish its Carolina Long Bay lease and its New York Bight lease, both awarded in 2022, along with its partners. As a result, TotalEnergies will no longer develop offshore wind projects in the United States. Under the terms of the settlement, TotalEnergies will recover the lease fees paid and will invest an equal amount in the development of U.S. Gas & Power production and exports. TotalEnergies has also signed recently a letter of intent with Glenfarne, lead developer of the Alaska LNG project, for the long-term offtake of 2M tons per year of liquefied natural gas over 20 years, subject to the project's final investment decision.PAX SILICA FUND:The Trump administration plans to launch a voluntary international consortium aimed at investing more than $1T in energy, minerals, and semiconductors to secure critical supply chains under U.S. influence, The New York Times' Ana Swanson and Sheera Frenkel. The initiative, tied to the "Pax Silica" program, would include countries such as Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Sweden, with the United States contributing $250M and expanding the effort to address energy security concerns. Publicly traded energy companies include Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and BP, while critical minerals companies include Albermarle, SQM, BHP, and Freeport McMoRan. Companies involved in the development and mining of rare earth minerals include Nova Minerals, Ioneer, Lynas Rare Earths, MP Materials, Energy Fuels, NioCorpand VanEck Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF. Publicly traded companies in the semi space include AMD, Intel, Marvell, Microchip, Micron, Nvidia, Qualcommand Texas Instruments.ALASKA OIL OUTPUT:Jarrod Agen, the executive director of White House National Energy Dominance Council, has stated that the Trump administration has held talks with oil companies about increasing output in Alaska, including the National Petroleum Reserve, Bloomberg's Ari Natter reports. The report cites Agen indicating that the issue has come up during meetings of CERAWeek by S&P Global conference.

The Trump administration plans to launch a voluntary international consortium aimed at investing more than $1T in energy, minerals, and semiconductors to secure critical supply chains under U.S. influence, The New York Times' Ana Swanson and Sheera Frenkel report. The initiative, tied to the "Pax Silica" program, would include countries such as Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Sweden, with the United States contributing $250M and expanding the effort to address energy security concerns. Publicly traded energy companies include Exxon (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Shell (SHEL), and BP (BP), while critical minerals companies include Albermarle (ALB), SQM (SQM), BHP (BHP), and Freeport McMoRan (FCX). Companies involved in the development and mining of rare earth minerals include Nova Minerals (NVA), Ioneer (IONR), Lynas Rare Earths (LYSCF), MP Materials (MP), Energy Fuels (UUUU), NioCorp (NB) and VanEck Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (REMX). Publicly traded companies in the semi space include AMD (AMD), Intel (INTC), Marvell (MRVL), Microchip (MCHP), Micron (MU), Nvidia (NVDA), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Texas Instruments (TXN).

Congressman Adrian Smith officially launched excavation last week of the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project mine portal during a tour and briefing on the project with county and local Nebraska officials. Congressman Smith is the senior member of the powerful U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal tax and trade policy, has been a longstanding supporter of efforts aimed at strengthening domestic critical mineral supply chains and has introduced legislation to provide tax benefits to U.S. producers of rare earth elements and scandium, which NioCorp Developments Ltd. intends to produce at the project. Congressman Smith and local officials were briefed on the project's pre-construction work last week by senior NioCorp management. During a tour, Congressman Smith operated a 117-ton excavator to start the first official excavation of the mine's portal, which will establish the primary access point to the planned underground mine. Nebraska-based Gana Trucking and Excavating is performing the mine portal construction. "I appreciated the opportunity to visit the Elk Creek Project," said Congressman Smith. "Projected to create over 400 jobs and generate more than $600 million in state and local tax revenue, this project will provide long-term economic opportunity while cementing Nebraska's role in securing a reliable domestic supply of critical minerals. In Congress, I will continue to support efforts like this to ensure that Nebraska remains a leader."

NioCorp Developments announced that construction of the main access to the underground portion of the Company's Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in southeast Nebraska has now begun. With detailed engineering well underway and construction equipment mobilized to the project site near Elk Creek, Nebraska, NioCorp has launched an approximately $44.6 million effort to construct the mine's main entrance, known as a "portal," that will serve as the primary access point for personnel, equipment, and materials. The portal will also be used to deliver ore from the underground mine to the surface production plant. The Company also filed a formal "Notice of Commencement" with the Mine Safety and Health Administration in conjunction with this effort.