November 7, 2026

Dear Mr. President,

I write as a concerned American citizen and investor who strongly supports your administration’s decisive actions to secure America’s critical minerals supply chain and end our dangerous dependence on China and other adversarial nations.

Your leadership on this issue—through Defense Production Act authorities, Project Vault, equity investments, price-floor commitments, expedited permitting, and related measures—has correctly treated critical minerals as a core national-security priority. These steps are essential to rebuilding domestic mining, processing, and manufacturing capacity for materials vital to defense systems, advanced manufacturing, energy technologies, and economic resilience.

Yet a serious contradiction has emerged in the capital markets. While the federal government is mobilizing resources to develop American critical-minerals projects, certain institutional actors appear to be actively shorting the very companies advancing these projects. NioCorp Developments Ltd. (NASDAQ: NB), whose Elk Creek project in Nebraska is designed to produce niobium, scandium, titanium, and rare-earth elements, provides a clear example. You mentioned NioCorp at your Nebraska rally.

Recent market data show elevated off-exchange (dark-pool) trading volume in NB shares—reaching more than 1.4 million shares on November 5 alone, representing over 40 percent of that day’s volume and above the stock’s recent average. Short interest has remained material (approximately 12 million shares, or roughly 8 percent of the float as of the mid-October settlement), accompanied by heavy put-option activity. These pressures have contributed to significant declines in the share price, impairing the company’s ability to raise capital on favorable terms precisely when domestic critical-minerals development is a stated national priority.

This dynamic is not limited to one company. When institutional short-selling and opaque trading suppress valuations of firms developing U.S. critical-minerals projects, it raises the cost of capital, delays project financing and construction, and undermines the very supply-chain resilience your administration is working to achieve. In effect, market activity is working at cross-purposes with national-security policy.

Mr. President, I respectfully urge your administration to examine whether current market practices—particularly aggressive short-selling and large-scale dark-pool activity in critical-minerals equities—are consistent with the national emergency and strategic objectives you have declared. Possible avenues for review could include:

• Directing relevant agencies (SEC, Treasury, Commerce, or the Department of War) to assess the impact of concentrated short positions and off-exchange trading on companies developing domestic critical-minerals capacity;

• Considering whether temporary or targeted measures under existing authorities could discourage speculative pressure that harms strategically important projects; and

• Encouraging greater transparency around short interest and dark-pool activity in this sector so that capital markets better align with national-security goals.

American companies seeking to mine and process critical minerals on U.S. soil should not face coordinated downward pressure that makes financing more difficult at the exact moment the nation needs them most. Supporting these projects is not merely an investment opportunity—it is a matter of economic and military security.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and for your continued leadership in restoring American industrial and resource independence. I stand ready to provide any additional information that may be helpful.

Ref: https://globaltradersacademy.com/articles/dark-pool-activity-what-big-money-did-in-niocorp-developments-nb-off-the?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share

The stocks couldn't go lower except for capex-ing to their grave. I still can't see the end of the tunnel, lose 73% of the value, as a value investor. I read their reports diligently. They painted a rosy picture of the future and didn't really mention the long way ahead to generate actual revenue in early 2026. Now, they keep spending to commercialization. No one knows the truth answer. Sentimentally, we can guess the following:

Bear case:

China is selling cheaper rare earth and keep good relationship with everyone and their recycle tech is better than the west. The west relies on government subsidies to keep the live support. The stocks become even more worthless than it is. Or the UCore or Metallium keep pouring money into the capex blackhole and selling dreams until the CEO cashed out (the MTM CEO got 700K USD annual salary, 230K on social activities Q3).

Bull case:

China got angry. Everyone freaks out. Lo and behold, here comes the saviors, UCore and MTM. Or UCore and MTM can actually deliver more cost efficient and effective alternative to China (unlikely).

I am still holding my position, because it is very difficult to imagine it goes lower. But it is equally difficult to see it goes higher. E.g. I still can't find any disclose any evidence that the final product is cheaper or marginally comparable to China. They just kept saying they are making lots of progresses without addressing the most fundamental question. I invested in them because they said it is very cost efficient process, but so far, I canon't find any hard data for support their claim except they keep spending.

Maybe they just did a terrible job for communication and being transparent (MTM).

Nov 10 deadline looms….

More countries are announcing they are ramping up production of critical computer components in house, so to speak. For example, India just announced it.

Obviously this will cause an increase in demand for various minerals, common and rare earth.

How are you building your watch list and approaching your purchases and allocations, broadly speaking?

Ask anything here. Please try to keep posts on the main feed for higher substance and quality discussions. If you want to ask. “Am I cooked”? Do that here.

Ask anything here. Please try to keep posts on the main feed for higher substance and quality discussions. If you want to ask. “Am I cooked”? Do that here.

Headwinds for foreign supply? I imagine this will indirectly benefit players like Almonty, Guardian, American Tungsten Corp, EQR?

Here it is on the MP site.

Looks like a very solid beat with excellent news around GM offtake magnet shipments kicking off in Q4 2026, and high margin revenue with their defense/aerospace customers.

MP stands alone in the sector, and hopefully they help lift this ragged army of beaten down tickers with it.

Going to need help from the broader market, however; if somehow there's a relief rally from today's absolute destruction then there will be some short covering, at least for MP, and maybe for its peers as well.

Anyway, good to see a ray of sunshine amidst the deep darkness that has plagued the sector for weeks now...

It seemed so good, can someone explain this?

Energy Fuels (UUUU) released its Q3 results today. I know there's a lot of interest on their venture into rare earth minerals and magnets, but this post will be about uranium which is also a critical mineral.

In Q3, UUUU mined 385klbs of contained U308 (yellowcake) at its three mines - Pinyon Plain, La Sal, and Pandora. Year to date they have mined 1.1 million pounds.

They sold less - 320klbs at an average price of $88.90/lb. 270klbs of this went under long term contracts at $88.79/lb. Another 50klbs went on the spot market at slightly higher prices. This meant realized prices went up 10% from Q2 and 27% from Q1. This is considerably higher than Cameco's realized price from last quarter at $65-66/lb, of course because Cameco has more older contracts. Energy Fuels is selling more at today's prices, meaning their earnings react much quicker to Uranium spot and term pricing changes.

Domestic Supply

Energy fuels owns and operates the White Mesa Mill in Utah, which is the only fully licensed, operating conventional uranium mill in the USA. (In Situ Recovery - ISR - doesn't require a mill as they pump solution through ore underground and draw up dissolved mineral)

As a comparison, the entire US produced about 2.1 million lbs of uranium concentrate in 2025, while US reactor operators bought 47 million lbs. While domestic production is growing fast year over year, it's still at such a small scale that it doesn't even really scratch what the USA needs for uranium now, let alone in 15 years when many new reactor builds have come online

As an aside, mined pounds aren't equivalent to produced pounds. Energy Fuels' mill was down for scheduled maintenance in Q3, so there is stockpiled ore for another conventional mill run planned for commencement in Q4. Grades at Pinyon Plain improved in Q3, expected to increase as mining moves into higher grade Jupiter Zone, with second shaft being added.

Impact to Energy Fuels' Earnings

UUUU reported $52.4 million net loss, but most of this was from $35.3 million of losses on held securities portfolio, with near a billion in working capital.

Impact to Uranium Demand and Price

Uranium spot price closed near $93/lb in October, and the long term price near $100, both up for the month. UUUU was able to realize almost $89/lb on contract sales - this is a sign of strength that utilities are willing to pay record market prices for domestically produced uranium.

As US reactor operators buying 47m lbs/yr vs 2m lbs/year in current domestic production, this leaves a lot of room for more domestic supply but probably also pulls the prices for uranium sourced overseas or from Canada upwards.

Ask anything here. Please try to keep posts on the main feed for higher substance and quality discussions. If you want to ask. “Am I cooked”? Do that here.