Trump’s sons acquire stake in US-backed mining firm, FT reports

(SeaPRwire) –   As reported by the media outlet, the firm obtained up to $1.6 billion in funding from Washington last year to carry out tungsten extraction in Kazakhstan

Per a Financial Times report, a shell company backed by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump has reached a merger agreement with a mining group that secured as much as $1.6 billion from the U.S. government in 2025 to support tungsten mining operations in Kazakhstan.

The deal between Skyline Builders Group, in which U.S. President Donald Trump’s sons hold an ownership stake, and Cove Kaz Capital Group was signed on Thursday. According to an official announcement, the newly formed combined entity will trade on the Nasdaq under the name Kaz Resources.

Cove Kaz currently controls 70% of the Northern Katpar and Upper Kairakty tungsten deposits located in central Kazakhstan, which are considered to be among the largest such deposits globally. Last year, the federally funded U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Development Finance Corporation pledged to make large-scale investments to develop both projects.

The official statement made no mention of Trump’s sons, but the FT reported on Friday, citing well-informed sources, that the pair purchased a stake in Skyline last August through a special purpose vehicle operated by a subsidiary of Dominari Securities. The total value of their initial investment has not been disclosed, but they added an extra $24 million to their holdings in October.

The publication stressed that “there is no indication that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were aware that Cove was on the verge of securing a contract from their father’s U.S. administration when they made their first investments in Skyline… nor that they influenced the contract awarding process.”

American Ventures, the group that counts Dominari as one of its members, stated that Donald Trump Jr. “has no involvement in the company’s day-to-day operations” and “does not engage with the federal government on behalf of any company he has invested in.” Eric Trump did not respond to the FT’s request for comment.

Democrats have repeatedly raised warnings about potential conflicts of interest stemming from investments made by Trump family members in companies that have won highly profitable government contracts. Per the FT, the president’s relatives earned more than $1 billion in pre-tax profits last year through their participation in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, drone and critical mineral projects.

Because of its extreme heat resistance and hardness, tungsten is an essential material for manufacturing aerospace and defense equipment. The U.S. currently has no operating mines that produce this metal, and is heavily reliant on imports from China to meet its supply needs.