Trump Team Weighs Venezuela Mining Deal as $100 Million Gold Shipment Already Landed

Since Trump announced U.S. control over 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves earlier this year, the administration has moved to open a second front: gold, bauxite, nickel, copper, and coltan.

According to Reuters reporting from Jarrett Renshaw and Ernest Scheyder, published September 8, U.S. officials have held meetings with mining companies to gauge interest in Venezuela's mineral sector. Three sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters the administration is considering a possible executive order focused on critical minerals, though the order is still being drafted and the strategy could change.

An executive from a critical minerals firm who met with the administration told Reuters: "We are all watching the oil situation closely and recognize there could be a parallel track with critical minerals."

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Reuters the U.S. and Venezuela are "benefiting from renewed cooperation between our governments and new investments by Western companies in Venezuela's key industries." A separate White House official told Reuters there's no current need for an executive order, saying existing law already provides a solid framework for investment. One part of the administration is drafting an order while another says it's unnecessary.

This isn't theoretical. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum confirmed a $100 million gold shipment from Venezuela arrived in the U.S. on Friday, September 4, according to Breitbart, days after Burgum met with acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez. Burgum announced the U.S. will work directly with Venezuela's mining sector following that meeting.

The legal groundwork goes back further. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control authorized certain transactions involving Venezuelan gold, including activity tied to state-owned miner Minerven, back in March, according to Reuters.

A parallel expansion of emergency powers

On September 8, Trump signed an executive order expanding which Cabinet officials can independently invoke Defense Production Act emergency powers over energy supplies, according to the Epoch Times. The order adds the interior secretary to a list that, since March, already includes the energy and commerce secretaries. Burgum, who also chairs the White House National Energy Dominance Council, now has independent authority to prioritize energy-related contracts and allocate resources for national defense. Disputes between departments get routed to that council, and national-defense-related disputes also go to the National Security Council in coordination with the Department of War.

The order doesn't mention Venezuela specifically, but it lands in the same week as the mining reporting and hands Burgum, the same official brokering the Venezuela mining relationship, more direct authority over energy and mineral resources at home.

Geological and verification gaps

Nobody actually knows how much gold or critical minerals Venezuela has. Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Reuters that Venezuela "never built the institutional capacity, industrial base, or investment environment" for large-scale, sustainable extraction. GlobalData Energy analysts added that geological exploration, permitting, mine development, processing capacity, and logistics are all underdeveloped, meaning it could take years before any of it reaches a market.

Unlike the oil reserves, where operators broadly agree Venezuela holds the largest proven reserves on Earth, the mineral surveys from the Maduro era are considered unreliable. This represents a real difference in verification levels between the two deals. Claims about Venezuela's mineral "wealth" are closer to speculation than fact.

There's also a fair question about the politics underneath all of it. Nicolás Maduro was captured in a U.S. military raid in January and is now held in a federal jail in New York on drug trafficking charges, which he denies. His successor, Delcy Rodríguez, was his own vice president before pivoting to align with Washington. Critics could reasonably ask whether cutting mineral deals with an unelected interim government installed after a military operation is the kind of stable, rule-of-law investment climate that mining companies actually need to commit billions in capital. The administration hasn't addressed that concern directly in any of the sourced reporting.

Where the money and China fit in

The push isn't isolated. Trump has separately announced a $12 billion domestic critical minerals stockpile, according to Breitbart, and China added ten American firms, including MP Materials and USA Rare Earth, to its own export control list in response to U.S. moves to reduce dependence on Chinese processing. Carolyn Kissane of New York University told J.P. Morgan that the current administration is "much more state interventionist" on commodities than any before it, including the Biden administration. J.P. Morgan's Greg Shearer said China has "essentially weaponized" its grip on rare resources, prompting the U.S. and its allies to play catch-up.

What comes next is whether Trump actually signs the critical-minerals executive order Reuters says is being drafted, or whether the administration sticks with its position that current law is enough. Either way, the gold is already moving. The reserve estimates that would justify a much bigger bet on Venezuelan mining are not.