The US government will invest $3 billion in critical minerals and battery projects as part of a push to increase domestic production and boost national security and industrial policy, President Donald Trump said on Friday. He announced a slew of investments during his speech, including a $1.4 billion conditional loan from the Defence Department’s Office of Strategic Capital for Sila Nanotechnologies, which makes lithium-ion battery parts. The OSC also extended a $400 million conditional loan to scandium miner Sunrise Energy Metals and a $150 million conditional loan to magnet developer Niron Magnetics. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and National Security Council official David Copley attended the announcement. Australia’s government on Saturday welcomed the Trump administration’s loan to Sunrise Energy Metals, which is developing a scandium mine in the country’s New South Wales state.