Baltimore, MD, April 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In the first year of his second term, President Trump signed more executive orders related to critical mineral development and domestic resource production than any administration in modern history. Former CIA advisor and economist Jim Rickards has released a new video presentation doing something no mainstream coverage has done: documenting that full policy sequence in one place, examining each action on its own terms, and making the case that a single significant Alaskan deposit sits — by virtue of its location, its resource composition, and its regulatory history — at the intersection of virtually every policy the administration has enacted.
His presentation is grounded entirely in public record. Every executive order he references is published on the White House website. Every resource figure he cites comes from official project filings. The argument he makes is not speculative — it is an analytical reading of documented policy and documented geology.
The Policy Sequence, Documented
The Trump administration's resource policy actions began on day one. On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14153, 'Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential,' directing federal agencies to expedite natural resource permitting in Alaska and rescind Biden-era restrictions on development.
Executive Order 14241 followed, formally designating copper as a critical mineral and creating a federal framework to accelerate permitting for significant copper deposits.
On March 20, 2025, a further executive order on domestic minerals production was signed. It explicitly positioned critical minerals as a national security imperative, ordering the Secretary of Defense to add mineral production as a priority industrial capability development area, and established the National Energy Dominance Council to oversee domestic minerals security.
On April 15, 2025, a Section 232 executive order launched an investigation into the national security risks posed by U.S. reliance on imported processed critical minerals and their derivative products.
On April 24, 2025, the administration signed a further executive order unleashing America's offshore critical minerals and resources, establishing the U.S. as a global leader in seabed mineral exploration. The same White House fact sheet announcing that order also confirmed the administration's advancement of the Ambler Access Project — a 211-mile industrial road through Northwest Alaska to enable commercial mining for copper, zinc, and other critical minerals.
The Deposit That Sits at Their Intersection
Each of these policy actions is independently significant. But Rickards' analysis examines them as a sequence with a common focal point. A significant deposit in southwest Alaska — documented in official resource filings as one of the world's largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits, with measured and indicated resources of 57 billion pounds of copper and 71 million ounces of gold — is directly affected by each of the five policy actions described above. It is in Alaska (EO 14153). Its primary resource is copper (EO 14241). It is relevant to domestic minerals security (March 2025 EO). Its development reduces import dependency in a critical mineral now under Section 232 investigation (April 15, 2025 EO). And it contributes to the administration's stated goal of making America the leading producer and processor of non-fuel minerals (April 24, 2025 EO).
The Gold Market as Further Context
The deposit's gold resources — 71 million ounces in measured and indicated categories — situate it within a gold market that has already undergone historic moves. Gold set 53 new all-time highs during 2025, with its annual average price rising 44% year-over-year to $3,431 per ounce, per the World Gold Council. Central banks globally purchased more than 1,000 tonnes of gold annually for three consecutive years through 2024 — more than double the historical average, according to the World Gold Council. Gold reached an all-time high of $5,589.38 per ounce on January 28, 2026, per CBS News.
What the Presentation Covers
- The full documented sequence of Trump administration executive actions on critical minerals and resource development — five distinct orders across the first four months of the second term
- How each executive action directly or indirectly affects the regulatory environment for the significant Alaskan deposit at the center of Rickards' analysis
- The documented resource scale of the deposit and the policy logic that Rickards argues makes it the single most relevant undeveloped resource project in the current administration's agenda
- What the gold market data — 53 all-time highs in 2025, three consecutive years of 1,000-tonne central bank purchases — adds to the strategic picture
About the Presentation
The full video presentation is available for on-demand viewing at no cost. To access the complete session, click here.
About Jim Rickards and Paradigm Press
Jim Rickards is an economist, lawyer, and bestselling author whose career has spanned five decades at the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, and international finance. He has advised senior officials at the Pentagon and CIA on financial threats to national security and worked directly with the Federal Reserve during the resolution of the 1998 Long-Term Capital Management crisis. His research is published by Paradigm Press, a financial publishing firm.
Derek Warren Public Relations Manager Paradigm Press Group Email: dwarren@paradigmpressgroup.com
