SA miner’s ‘Horse Heaven’ boon ahead of Trump meeting PM
One SA business has doubled in value ahead of Prime Minister Albanese’s meeting with President Trump tomorrow, others in the minerals sector are waiting on tenterhooks as the critical meeting unfolds.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to meet with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday and Australian officials have been laying the groundwork for a potential critical minerals deal with the US, which is hoped could be used as leverage for a tariff exemption.
Resources Minister Madeleine King and Industry Minister Tim Ayres were set to join parts of the prime minister’s Washington trip, which was expected to focus on the critical minerals deal.
Ahead of the trip, Adelaide-based Resolution Minerals more than doubled in value, with record volume changing hands after it announced plans for a high-profile briefing.
The company – which is advancing a major US mining project in Idaho called Horse Heaven and today landed more millions from a cornerstone investor – last Monday announced it had received an official request from former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to provide a briefing on the project.
Rudd is the current Australian Ambassador to the United States, and requested the briefing on the gold-antimony-tungsten project in Idaho ahead of Albanese’s meeting with Trump.
“Resolution Minerals appreciates the opportunity to brief Ambassador Rudd on the Horse Heaven Project ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to Washington,” Resolution Minerals US CEO Craig Lindsay said.
“Horse Heaven is a significant Australian-led project in the United States, with historical and potential future production of gold, antimony and tungsten, which are all critical to industrial and defence applications.
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“The briefing reflects the constructive cooperation between Australia and the US on the development of secure, transparent critical mineral supply chains.
“We look forward to contributing to this dialogue and providing an update on our progress of our work in Idaho.”
Shares in the company have continued to rise today, up 22 per cent in early trade.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would aim to shore up US support for AUKUS and a potential tariff exemption ahead of his crucial meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
The prime minister was expected to land in Washington on Monday afternoon (AEDT) before his meeting with the US president at the White House the following day.
While the two leaders briefly came face-to-face on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September, the meeting will be the first time the two leaders have held formal bilateral talks since Mr Trump’s re-election as president.
While RML did not rank in InDaily’s 2025 South Australian Business Index, released on Friday, the firm’s market capitalisation was now approximately $180 million, which would have landed it a position in the list of the top 100 companies in the state if it had been judged today.
Shares in the firm rose by 109 per cent in the trading week – including a 55 per cent rise on Wednesday – to hit three-year highs by Friday.
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The multi-commodity project taps into global demand for critical minerals. Near Horse Heaven is Perpetua Resources’ Stibnite Antimony and Gold Mine, and that company has an approximately $3 billion market capitalisation.
RML today also raised $2 million from Tribeca Investment Partners which acquired 25 million shares. The firm said it would use the money to explore critical mineral processing initiatives, a drilling campaign at Horse Heaven, and the identification and acquisition of additional assets.
It followed a $25 million raise for the firm earlier this month.
Antimony and tungsten are both part of the 2025 Draft List of Critical Minerals created by the Department of the Interior and play essential roles in military and advanced technology infrastructure.
The United States is bullish on critical minerals projects and is expediting permissions and grants programs.
RML’s Horse Heaven project comprises 729 mining claims over 14,580 acres in Idaho. It has a history of gold antimony production, having yielded more than 27,000 kg of gold and 6.1 million kg of tungsten during WWII and the Korean War, accounting for 90 per cent of total US antimony production at the time.
Meanwhile, another South Australian rare earth business Power Minerals could also reap rewards from tomorrow’s meeting, today announcing it had started the process to list on a US market.
US Inventors were keen on the company’s planned acquisition of the Gamma Heavy Rare Earths and Uranium project in San Bernardino, California.
Power Minerals believed the Gamma Project “is considered to have significant potential for highly desirable heavy rare earth elements and uranium”. There had been no drilling in the area for 50 years, and it had only recently been sampled for heavy rare earth elements.
“Listing on the OTCQB Market aligns with our vision of becoming a globally recognised developer of heavy rare earths in the United States,” managing director Mena Habib said.
Economist Ellis Martin was appointed as Power Minerals’ US corporate advisor to lead the company’s engagement with the new market. Martin has more about seven million listeners for his The Ellis Martin Report radio show and podcast.
