# Korea Zinc Lobbying Retainers 2026 [[Korea Zinc]], the South Korean metals smelter, keeps two Washington lobbying firms on retainer. Their 2026 quarterly reports: | Firm | Per quarter | 2026 through Q3 | |---|---|---| | [[Ballard Partners]] | $600,000 | $1.8M | | [[Mercury Public Affairs]] | $360,000 | $1.08M | | **Total** | **$960,000** | **$2.88M** | At that pace Korea Zinc is spending about **$3.8 million a year** on two firms with close ties to the Trump administration. The Q3 reports from both firms were posted on October 18, 2026. ## Why it matters Korea Zinc is a foreign company, but it is reported under the Lobbying Disclosure Act rather than the Foreign Agents Registration Act. That is the usual route for a foreign *commercial* client as opposed to a foreign government. So this money never appears in the foreign-agent filings most watchdogs search. The company is also an **$85.2 million** strategic investor in [[The Metals Company]], the deep-sea mining firm courting Washington for seabed permits. Critical minerals is the issue tying the two together. ## What Ballard's Q3 filing says | | | |---|---| | **Issue** | Natural resources: "Critical mineral and metal development" | | **Lobbied** | Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, the Senate and the White House Office | | **Lobbyists** | [[Brian Ballard]], Thomas Boodry and Scott Wagner | Boodry came to Ballard from the White House, where he was a Special Assistant to the President and senior director for legislative affairs at the National Security Council in 2025, and before that legislative director to [[Mike Waltz]]. A foreign smelter lobbying the Pentagon and the White House on critical minerals fits the administration's push to rebuild non-Chinese supply chains for defense metals. ## See Also - [[Korea Zinc]] - [[Ballard Partners]] - [[Brian Ballard]] - [[Mercury Public Affairs]] - [[The Metals Company]]