Trump-backed group joins billion-dollar Kazakhstan tungsten deal

A Trump-linked investment vehicle moved into a Kazakhstan tungsten venture worth about $1.1 billion as U.S. agencies lined up as much as $1.6 billion in financing support, putting the president’s family near a strategic-minerals deal with government backing.

Cove Capital and Kazakhstan’s state miner, JSC Tau-Ken Samruk, announced the joint venture on November 6, 2025, at the White House during a C5+1 summit with Central Asian leaders. The project targets the North Katpar and Upper Kairakty deposits in central Kazakhstan, a resource described as the largest known undeveloped tungsten deposit in the world. The U.S. State Department said the agreement would support construction of a tungsten mining and processing plant, with capital expenditure estimated at about $1.1 billion.

The policy case for the deal is straightforward: tungsten is a critical mineral, and Washington wanted to prevent Chinese companies from developing the asset. Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick helped negotiate the agreement, while Cove chief executive Pini Althaus called it a “generational win” for U.S. critical minerals needs. The financing support came from U.S. institutions including the Export-Import Bank and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, underscoring the federal role in pushing the project forward.

The private-benefit question surfaced when a company backed by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump acquired a stake in the U.S. group tied to the Kazakhstan venture. The merger announcement that followed did not mention the brothers by name, but the new company was expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker KAZR. That structure has drawn criticism from Sen. Jon Ossoff, who said taxpayer-backed support for the project raises conflict-of-interest concerns. The deal now sits at the intersection of industrial policy and family-linked business gain, with the official goal of securing a critical mineral colliding with questions about who profits from the arrangement.