# Kazakhstan Tungsten Deal In **September–November 2025**, Commerce Secretary [[Howard Lutnick]] and President [[Donald Trump]] secured from [[Kazakhstan]]'s president, [[Kassym-Jomart Tokayev]], U.S. access to one of the largest untapped reserves of **tungsten** in the world — a metal the United States relies on for missile warheads, fighter jets, armor-piercing ammunition, and computer chips. The deal was reported by Paul Sonne and Eric Lipton of the *[[New York Times]]* on **June 28, 2026** as a case study in Trump-and-Lutnick family self-dealing. ## Why It's in the KB The Kazakhstan tungsten deal is the anchor example in the *New York Times*' reconstruction of a **self-dealing pattern**: at least **fourteen companies** with ties to the Trumps and Lutnicks working with the federal government on mining deals for critical materials, with the administration having **provided or considered providing more than $8.9 billion in taxpayer money** to those firms. It is the [[Critical Minerals]] analogue of the [[Vulcan Elements OSC $620M Pentagon Loan]] — public money and government dealmaking flowing toward ventures the president's and commerce secretary's families personally profit from. ## The Structure An obscure U.S. company, [[Kaz Resources]], won access to the Kazakh tungsten reserves, taking a **70% interest** in the project (the state-owned Kazakh firm Tau-Ken Samruk holds the remaining 30%). The developed mine could supply roughly 12,000 metric tons of tungsten a year — about the equivalent of total annual U.S. imports of the metal. The conflict architecture, as reported: | Element | Detail | |---|---| | Federal funding | Before the deal closed, Trump administration officials advanced applications for as much as **$1.6 billion** in federal funding for the company | | Trump-family stake | An investment firm partly owned by Trump's sons [[Donald Trump Jr.]] and [[Eric Trump]] took a **20% stake** in a corporate entity related to the project | | Lutnick-family raise | [[Cantor Fitzgerald]], run by Lutnick's sons Brandon and Kyle, helped raise **$210 million** for a related entity — likely pocketing millions in fees | | Signing | The deal was signed **November 6, 2025** | The Trump sons' firm was identified in the reporting as Dominari Securities — the broker-dealer subsidiary of [[Dominari Holdings]], the Trump Tower-headquartered company whose advisory board the sons joined in February 2025 — which acquired its stake on October 31, 2025; Cantor Fitzgerald's $210M raise occurred in October 2025. ## Timeline | Date | Development | |---|---| | Late Sept 2025 | Lutnick meets Tokayev at New York's St. Regis Hotel; Trump joins by phone | | Oct 2025 | Cantor Fitzgerald helps raise $210M for a related entity | | Oct 31, 2025 | Trump sons' investment firm takes a 20% stake in a related corporate entity | | Nov 6, 2025 | Deal signed | | June 28, 2026 | Sonne & Lipton (NYT) publish the self-dealing investigation | ## The Denial White House spokesperson Kush Desai denied any impropriety, saying "the only special interest guiding the Trump administration's decision-making is the best interest of the American people" and framing the deal as part of reshoring America's critical supply chains. The Trump Organization has disputed the *Times* reporting and demanded a retraction, denying that the Trump brothers had any involvement in the deal negotiations. ## Connections The deal sits inside the [[Trump Family Corruption Ecosystem]] and the broader [[Defense Tech Conflicts of Interest]] pattern of channeling public money and government leverage toward Trump-linked critical-minerals ventures. It is the tungsten counterpart to the rare-earth [[Vulcan Elements OSC $620M Pentagon Loan]] and figures in the [[Trump Corruption News Log]]. Heather Cox Richardson compiled it alongside the ballroom no-bid contract and the ~$1.4B crypto disclosure in her July 1, 2026 letter. ## See Also - [[Kaz Resources]] - [[Dominari Holdings]] - [[Howard Lutnick]] - [[Donald Trump Jr.]] - [[Eric Trump]] - [[Cantor Fitzgerald]] - [[Kassym-Jomart Tokayev]] - [[Critical Minerals]] - [[Vulcan Elements OSC $620M Pentagon Loan]] - [[Trump Family Corruption Ecosystem]] - [[Trump Corruption News Log]]