Highlights

• The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council expanded to 76 active projects with over 50 mining-related projects under FAST-41, creating public timetables and accountability through the Transparency Dashboard.
• While permitting coordination improvements are real, showcase projects focus on energy and logistics—not rare earth mining, separation, or magnet manufacturing where bottlenecks persist.
• FAST-41 represents a strategic shift positioning federal permitting as a competitiveness tool, but investors should view this as enabling infrastructure rather than guaranteed rare earth production.

---

The Trump Administration’s first-year scorecard on FAST-41 permitting reform, released January 20, 2026 by the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, is designed to project momentum: more projects, faster timelines, and fewer bureaucratic stalls. On paper, the numbers look impressive. The Council expanded its portfolio to 76 active projects, completed 13 federal permits in one year, and sharply increased the number of mining-related projects under FAST-41 coverage.

For investors watching rare earths and critical minerals, the headline is simple: Washington is trying to move faster.

Where the Signal Is Real

Some claims withstand scrutiny. The expansion of mining projects—from essentially one to 50+ by late 2025—is material. The use of FAST-41’s Transparency Dashboard authority for the first time, covering 40 mining-related projects, is not cosmetic; it creates public timetables and accountability. Likewise, the Alaska statewide MOU is notable. Alaska hosts strategic minerals, LNG, and infrastructure corridors, and coordinated federal-state permitting can shave years off timelines if executed well.

For supply-chain investors, this matters: permitting speed is now an explicit industrial policy lever, not a background process.

What’s Missing Between the Lines

However, Rare Earth Exchanges™ urges caution. The showcase projects—Alaska LNG, Sparrows Point Container Terminal, and Warrior Met Coal—are not rare earth projects. They are energy, logistics, and metallurgical coal. Faster LNG or port approvals do not automatically translate into accelerated rare earth mining, separation, or magnet manufacturing.

The release also emphasizes “energy dominance” and infrastructure, while downstream mineral processing remains largely unaddressed. Permitting a mine faster is helpful; permitting a separation plant, refinery, or magnet facility is where the real bottlenecks still live.

Optimism vs. Execution Risk

There is a strong pro-development framing here. That is not misinformation—but it is selective storytelling. FAST-41 improves coordination; it does not eliminate environmental review, litigation risk, local opposition, or capital constraints. Many of the 40 “transparent” mining projects have not reached construction, and only nine have completed permitting so far.

For rare earths specifically, the constraint remains processing and refining, not just permits.

Why This Still Matters

The notable shift is philosophical. Federal permitting is being repositioned as a strategic competitiveness tool, especially for minerals tied to defense, energy, and manufacturing. If FAST-41 momentum extends from mines into processing, separation, and magnet facilities, this could meaningfully change U.S. supply-chain resilience.

For now, investors should view this as enabling infrastructure, not guaranteed production.

Source: Permitting Council Press Release, Jan. 20, 2026.