What Happened: What The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has released the final 2025 List of Critical Minerals, expanding it to 60 commodities by adding 10 new minerals. Published in the Federal Register on November 7, 2025, this update retains all 50 from the 2022 list while incorporating additions. View the…
On October 11, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1319 into law, establishing a new California Endangered Species Act (CESA) mechanism for California to extend state-level endangered species protections to species that may lose federal safeguards under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The statute empowers the California Department…
The Trump administration has unveiled the first 10 mining projects designated for accelerated federal permitting under Executive Order 14157, Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production, which prioritizes expedited permitting, federal land leasing, and funding of mining projects (discussed in our previous blogpost here). Published by the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering…
Following President Trump’s March 20, 2025, Executive Order (“EO”) 14157, “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production” (discussed in our blogpost here), and recent recognition of valid existing rights to continue mining for gold and rare earth elements at the Colosseum Mine (see our blogpost here blog), the administration has…
This week, the U.S. Department of the Interior (“DOI”) publicly confirmed the ongoing rights of Colosseum Rare Metals, Inc. (“CRM”) to continue mining operations at the Colosseum Mine, located within the Mojave National Preserve (“MOJA”) in San Bernardino County, California. The Department’s communication reaffirms that CRM holds “valid existing rights”…
President Donald Trump has nominated Kathleen M. Sgamma, a 20-year advocate of the oil and gas industry, as the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), is responsible for administering 245 million acres of federal public land and…
By Kerry Shapiro On January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued the “Unleashing American Energy” Executive Order to, among other things, establish the United States as a “leading producer and processor of non-fuel minerals.” (“Executive Order”) The Executive Order emphasizes key energy policies, including the removal of EV-mandates and…
By Kerry Shapiro On August 30, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona issued an order in Pasqua Yaqui Tribe, et al. v. U.S. EPA, et al., vacating the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (“NWPR”) and remanding the rule back to the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and U.S.…
An Overview of CalCIMA’s Current Judicial, Legislative, and Regulatory Activities by Kerry Shapiro, General Counsel to CalCIMA and Chair of JMBM’s Natural Resources and Mining Group and Martin Stratte This article was first published in the Summer 2019 issue of The Conveyor, a publication of the California Construction and Industrial…
On April 25, 2019, the California Construction and Industrial Materials Association (CalCIMA) filed a petition for writ of mandate and complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief (“Petition”) in Ventura County Superior Court challenging the County of Ventura’s approval of a proposed “Habitat Connectivity and Wildlife Corridor” Project and its implementing…