Trump Team Backs Effort for US-Kazakhstan Tungsten Mine Deal

President Donald Trump’s administration is involved in talks for a US company to access one of the world’s largest untapped deposits of tungsten, a metal used by the Pentagon to make ammunition, projectiles and other weaponry.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has facilitated negotiations between Cove Kaz Capital Group LLC and Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund about a bid to develop two of the central Asian country’s largest deposits of the metal, according to people familiar with the matter.

The talks are aligned with the White House’s effort to boost supplies of the mineral as the US weans itself off China’s ...