Two United States government lenders have stepped back from one of the highest profile critical minerals deals of the current administration. Neither the Export-Import Bank nor the International Development Finance Corporation plans to fund the Kazakh tungsten venture of Cove Kaz Capital Group, for which they issued letters of interest last year totalling $1.6 billion, $900 million from EXIM and a $700 million potential loan from DFC. A DFC official confirmed on Tuesday that the project has not advanced beyond stage one of the corporation’s four-part review and know-your-customer screening, and that DFC is not actively pursuing a transaction at this time. An EXIM spokesperson declined to comment, and a source familiar with the matter confirmed EXIM also would not proceed.
The project, to develop a large tungsten deposit in Kazakhstan with state mining firm JSC Tau-Ken Samruk, was announced in November 2025 as part of the effort to break China’s control over critical minerals. Cove Kaz said on November 2 that it plans a public listing under the name Kaz Resources, and that it received a $32 million capital commitment from American Ventures LLC, a fund linked to the Trump family. President Trump’s eldest sons are set to hold an indirect stake of less than 1 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported. A spokesperson for the sons said neither has any involvement in day-to-day management and neither had involvement in, or advance knowledge of, the decision to pursue a public listing.
Cove Kaz executive chairman Pini Althaus said the company has had no indication of any change of heart from official lenders, expressed concern at learning of agency views through the media, and said the project does not yet require loan financing and will not formally apply until it completes a definitive feasibility study next year. In his October 1 Senate confirmation hearing, EXIM vice chairman nominee David Slade said there is no loan for the Kazakh project. The letters of interest were non-binding, so nothing approved has been withdrawn; what has closed is the expected path to agency debt.