Baltimore, MD, Nov. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. military has a new kind of investment. It’s not a weapons maker. It’s a mining company in the Alaska wilderness.
The Department of War has closed a $35.6 million investment in Trilogy Metals. The deal gives the government a 10% stake in the company, plus warrants for another 7.5%.
Trilogy and its partner South32 control a remote mineral district in northwest Alaska that’s rich in copper, cobalt and germanium. The Department calls one of its deposits, the Arctic project, one of the world’s highest-grade undeveloped copper deposits.
There’s just one problem. There’s no road to get there. The proposed Ambler Road would run 211 miles from the Dalton Highway into the heart of the district.
Washington is now betting money that the road, and the mines, get built. Mike Cadenazzi, Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy, calls the deal “a decisive investment in America’s supply chain independence.”
In a recent free presentation, former White House and Federal Reserve advisor Jim Rickards says moves like this mark a historic shift. “For the first time in our lives, the government is set to unlock this massive asset,” he says.
Why the Military Wants Minerals
Copper, cobalt and germanium aren’t household names. But they’re inside the electronics, weapons and power systems a modern military runs on.
Rickards warns that America has let itself become dangerously dependent on foreign supply. He argues that the U.S. relies on China for key minerals used in everything from AI chips to “advanced military weaponry like F-16 fighters and drones.”
That makes a remote Alaska deposit more than a business story. It’s a national security story. And the Pentagon is treating it like one.
A Road to the Last Frontier
The Ambler district has been known for decades. What it has never had is access.
Rickards says that’s how America’s mineral wealth has always worked. Find the resources. Open the path. Then watch what happens.
He points to America’s own history. San Francisco, he notes, was “a sleepy village of less than 300 people for decades” before the 1849 gold rush. Birmingham, Alabama, was a quiet cotton district until iron, coal and copper discoveries in the 1870s. “Overnight, it became known as ‘The Magic City,’” Rickards says.
“An explosion of mineral wealth rained down over our nation,” he says. “And anyone of modest means could stake a claim and strike it rich.”
Alaska’s Untapped Riches
Alaska sits at the center of Rickards’ story. He estimates “$3.1 trillion is held in Nome, Alaska” alone. He also points to the state’s famous Pebble deposit, which he calls “one of the greatest sources of mineral wealth ever discovered.”
Much of that wealth sits on public land. Rickards notes that federal lands make up “roughly 28% of all land in the U.S.,” and he believes they hold world-class deposits that have never been touched.
A road into the Ambler district is a reminder of how much of that potential still depends on one basic question: can anyone get to it?
The Question at the End of the Road
When the Pentagon buys into a mining company, it’s a signal. Washington doesn’t just want these minerals developed. It wants a piece of them.
Rickards believes that shift could change how the market values America’s untapped deposits, and the rights attached to them. His presentation explores who could benefit as those deposits finally open up.
About This Presentation
A road, a mine and a Pentagon investment are just one piece of a much bigger puzzle. In The American Birthright, a free presentation, Jim Rickards traces how mineral discoveries built America’s greatest cities. He explains why he believes the next great American mining boom has already begun. Watch it on demand.
About Jim Rickards
Jim Rickards has been inside the West Wing, the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Over a five-decade career, he served as an advisor to the White House and the Fed and worked alongside the U.S. intelligence community. He’s also known for seeing trouble coming: in 2020, he warned of the coming pandemic and lockdowns before most people saw them coming.
Derek Warren Public Relations Manager Paradigm Press Group Email: dwarren@paradigmpressgroup.com
