US to take $150M stake in critical mineral company ATALCO

The Trump administration is taking a $150 million equity stake to build the US's only big producer of gallium, a critical mineral used in satellite systems and military radar.

The Defense Department and an affiliate of Pinnacle Asset Management are set to announce a strategic partnership Monday involving Atlantic Alumina Co., or ATALCO, which has been turning bauxite into alumina just outside of New Orleans since the late 1950s. Alumina is a fine white powder used to make aluminum.

The deal is the latest example of the Trump administration's unprecedented push to invest directly in companies it views as critical to US national security. It took a stake in chipmaker Intel Corp. last year while also negotiating a "golden share" in US Steel Corp. as part of its takeover of Japan's Nippon Steel Corp.