For U.S. mining investors, shifts in federal policy — particularly during the Donald Trump administration — have reshaped how capital evaluates large domestic projects.
In an exclusive email interview with Benzinga, John Shively, CEO of Pebble Limited Partnership, said executive orders and regulatory signals from the Trump era marked a meaningful change in tone compared with the Obama and Biden administrations.
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That change has potential implications for investment confidence across the U.S. mining sector.
From Preemptive Veto To Uncertainty
The Pebble Project in Alaska, the largest untapped copper mine in the U.S., first faced a preemptive EPA veto effort under the Obama administration, an action Shively said rippled across the mining sector.
He told Benzinga that the episode has been “repeatedly identified by surveys of major mining companies as a barrier to investment in the U.S.,” not because of environmental standards, but because of the uncertainty it introduced into the permitting process.
That uncertainty, Shively argued, made it harder for investors to price risk in projects that require billions of dollars and decades-long timelines — a challenge familiar to developers and shareholders across large U.S.-listed miners such as Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX) and Southern Copper Corp (NYSE:SCCO), where capital discipline and permitting visibility directly affect long-term production planning.
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Why The Trump-Era Shift Matters
Shively said executive orders issued during the Trump administration signaled a different posture — one that emphasized welcoming responsible resource development. That shift in tone, he said, matters because investor confidence is shaped as much by regulatory attitude as by written rules.
He also pointed to recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions related to NEPA and wetlands permitting, which he said could have a “major positive impact” on how companies assess future U.S. mining investments — a dynamic closely followed not just by individual stock investors, but also by those tracking diversified exposure through vehicles like the Global X Copper Miners ETF (NYSE:COPX) and broader strategic-metals funds.
Certainty Over Speed
Shively emphasized that the issue is predictability, not deregulation. Investors, he told Benzinga, want a permitting framework grounded in “the rule of law and fair process,” rather than outcomes that shift with political cycles.
Whether the EPA veto is ultimately reversed or not, Shively said the signal it sends will influence where mining capital — across copper producers, precious-metals miners such as Newmont Corp (NYSE:NEM) and sector-wide ETFs — ultimately chooses to deploy.
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Photo: John Shively, courtesy Pebble Limited Partnership
