Permitting Council Adds Three New Critical Mineral Mining Projects to FAST-41 Transparency Status

WASHINGTON (August 1, 2025) – The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) announces the addition of three new critical mineral mining projects to FAST-41 transparency status. The Sweetwater Project, Angel Island Project and Doe Run Project now bring the total number of transparency projects added to the Federal Permitting Dashboard to 31 since President Trump’s March 20^th Executive Order on Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production. These new projects will receive the transparency benefits of the Permitting Council’s FAST-41 program, delivering an efficient and accountable permitting process that will aid in providing reliable energy to Americans.

“I am excited to welcome these three new projects to the FAST-41 transparency dashboard in support of President Trump’s goal of unlocking our country’s vast energy and mineral resources,” said Emily Domenech, Permitting Council Executive Director. “The critical minerals that these projects can produce would be game-changing for our nation as we work to reduce our reliance on China and strengthen our national and economic security.” 

The latest transparency projects include:

• Sweetwater Project: Sponsored by Uranium Energy Corporation, this uranium mining and processing facility is located on federal land in the Great Divide Basin of Wyoming. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management leads permitting for this project.

• Angel Island Project: Sponsored by Century Lithium, this project is a development stage lithium production project located in Clayton Valley in Esmeralda County, NV. If permitted, the project is projected to yield an average of 34,000 tonnes per year of battery-grade lithium carbonate over a 40-year mine life. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management leads permitting for this project. 

• Doe Run Project: Sponsored by The Doe Run Company, this project is an underground mine with tailings disposal located in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. If permitted, it will deliver lead, zinc and copper concentrates across the globe for uses in batteries, electricity production and the galvanizing of steel for construction, automotive and machinery industries. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service leads permitting for this project.

Learn more about these projects on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. Learn more about the Permitting Council at permitting.gov. 

About the Permitting Council and FAST-41

Established in 2015 by Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41), the Permitting Council is a federal agency charged with improving the transparency and predictability of the federal environmental review and authorization process for certain critical infrastructure projects. The Permitting Council is comprised of the Permitting Council Executive Director, who serves as the Council Chair; 13 federal agency Council members (including deputy secretary-level designees of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Army, Commerce, Interior, Energy, Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security, and Housing and Urban Development, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chairs of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation); and the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The Permitting Council coordinates federal environmental reviews and authorizations for projects that seek and qualify for FAST-41 coverage. FAST-41 covered projects are entitled to comprehensive permitting timetables and transparent, collaborative management of those timetables on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. FAST-41 covered projects may be in the energy production, electricity transmission, energy storage, surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resource, broadband, pipelines, manufacturing, mining, carbon capture, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and machine learning, high-performance computing and advanced computer hardware and software, quantum information science and technology, data storage and data management, and cybersecurity sectors.

Transparency Projects: A transparency project is not a FAST-41 covered project, but rather a project that the Executive Director directs the lead agency to post to the Permitting Dashboard for transparency purposes. These projects receive the “transparency” that is at the core of the FAST-41 process but do not receive the other benefits of FAST-41 coverage, including the development of a coordinated project plan and dedicated project management by Permitting Council experts.