Korea Zinc Shares Jump 11% After US Commerce Secretary Names Its Tennessee Smelter a Critical Minerals 'Model'

What Happened

Shares of Korea Zinc (KRX: 010130), one of the largest names on the KOSPI, opened sharply higher on Monday, August 10, and kept climbing through the morning session. Around 9:17 a.m. local time the stock was up 7.87%, trading near 1,193,000 won, and by mid-morning gains had extended to as much as 11.21% — a jump of roughly 124,000 won to about 1,230,000 won, with some reports noting an intraday touch near 1,250,000 won. For a large-cap industrial name on the KOSPI, a double-digit single-day move of this size is unusual, and trading volume and turnover both spiked well above recent averages.

The trigger was a comment from a senior US official. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick publicly cited Korea Zinc's large-scale nonferrous metals smelter project under construction in Clarksville, Tennessee, as a model example of how the United States is securing its critical minerals supply chain, calling it "a big win for America." The remark built on a White House critical minerals roundtable held on August 7, where the Trump administration unveiled more than $2 billion in mining and mineral-processing investments, and it was reported widely across Korean and international outlets on August 9 and 10. It is a notable moment when a senior official from one government singles out a foreign company's domestic investment as the flagship example of a policy win — markets read it not as a throwaway line, but as a signal about where regulatory and funding priority will continue to flow.

The project in question, often referred to as "Project Crucible," is a large integrated nonferrous metals refinery. Capital expenditure alone is estimated at $6.6 billion, and total investment — including working capital and financing costs — comes to roughly $7.4 billion. The US Department of Commerce has already committed $210 million in direct incentives to the project under the CHIPS and Science Act, and the US Department of Defense has provided additional backing. The project also carries FAST-41 status, a designation reserved for large, complex infrastructure projects that qualify for streamlined federal permitting — underscoring that this was already a high-priority undertaking well before Monday's remarks.

Why a US Official Singled Out a Korean Smelter in Tennessee

To understand why this matters, start with why "critical minerals" have become such a policy priority in the first place. The category covers metals like antimony, gallium, germanium, and indium — inputs that are essential to semiconductors, AI data-center hardware, defense systems, electric-vehicle batteries, and quantum computing. The core problem is that global refining capacity for many of these metals is heavily concentrated in one country: China. As Beijing has rolled out a series of export controls on rare and strategic metals used in chipmaking and defense manufacturing over the past couple of years, Washington and its allies have grown increasingly anxious about the fragility of that supply chain.

That is precisely where Korea Zinc fits in. The company operates the world's largest zinc and lead smelting capacity and is one of the few producers globally capable of refining precious metals like gold and silver alongside critical minerals such as antimony, gallium, germanium, and indium in the same integrated operation. It is reportedly the world's largest refined-indium producer and supplies a meaningful share of US indium demand. For Washington, a company with proven refining technology building that capacity on US soil — rather than merely selling finished metal into the US market — is close to an ideal fit: it reduces dependence on China while importing know-how that would otherwise take years to develop domestically. Lutnick's own framing made this explicit, describing the Tennessee facility as capable of producing 13 critical and strategic minerals at scale for aerospace and defense, semiconductors, AI, quantum computing, automotive manufacturing, broader industry, and national security.

The mechanics behind the stock reaction follow from that logic. When a senior official publicly names a specific company's project as a model case, it functions as a signal that the project is likely to keep receiving priority treatment on permitting, funding, and policy support going forward. Layered on top of the CHIPS Act incentive, Pentagon-linked backing, and FAST-41 fast-track permitting the project already had, Monday's remarks appear to have further reduced investors' perceived uncertainty around whether the plant will actually get built and generate returns. The path here has not been smooth throughout, though. When the investment plan first became public in late 2025, Korea Zinc shares briefly spiked more than 26% before retreating over 13% as major shareholders Youngpoong and MBK Partners pushed back against the company's share-issuance method with legal challenges. A Korean court's recent rejection of their injunction request cleared much of that legal uncertainty, and Monday's comments from Washington layered fresh policy conviction on top.

Timing also matters here. The August 7 roundtable that preceded Lutnick's remarks involved not just the Commerce Secretary but also Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and it bundled together more than $2 billion in mining, battery, magnet, and mineral-processing projects alongside $180 million earmarked for rebuilding America's mining workforce pipeline. In other words, the Korea Zinc mention was not a standalone event — it was one piece of a much larger, multi-agency push to rebuild critical minerals supply chains both domestically and through allied partners. Washington has been stacking similar measures in recent weeks, including a late-July directive restricting exports of recovered critical minerals to keep them available for domestic defense and industrial use. Because Project Crucible has already broken ground rather than remaining a paper commitment, it offered the administration a concrete, visible example rather than an abstract policy promise — and the market appears to have priced that distinction in.

What to Take Away From This

• A single geopolitical policy comment can move an individual stock by double digits in a day. This rally had nothing to do with earnings or a product launch — it came from one remark by a foreign government official. Reading macro policy news with the follow-up question "which specific companies actually benefit from this" is often where the edge lies.
• Policy-driven rallies carry policy-driven volatility. Korea Zinc's own history is the clearest illustration: a 26% spike on the initial announcement was followed by a 13% pullback once shareholder opposition surfaced. Riding a policy catalyst means accepting that legal disputes, shareholder pushback, or regulatory shifts can just as easily reverse the move.
• Supply-chain realignment is a multi-year theme, not a single headline. The US-China rivalry over critical minerals is not resolving anytime soon, and this remark was one data point within an August 7 policy package that spans multiple agencies. Positioning around the broader multi-year theme tends to be more durable than chasing each individual news cycle.
• Government backing does not eliminate execution risk. Even with CHIPS Act funding, defense-linked support, and expedited permitting secured, the Tennessee plant isn't expected to reach commercial production until 2029. Large infrastructure builds routinely face construction delays and cost overruns, so a short-term rally on a single announcement should not be mistaken for the project's ultimate success.

Sources

This article synthesizes and analyzes the reporting below in our own words - it is not a reproduction of the original text. For the latest developments, please consult the original sources directly.

• Korea Zinc shares up 11% on US Commerce Secretary's critical minerals investment remark - Newspim
• Trump unveils critical minerals investment plan to counter China; Korea Zinc named as flagship case - Money Today
• JPMorgan, US backing Korea Zinc's $7.4 billion Tennessee smelter - Bloomberg

⚠️ This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Markets move in real time - always verify the latest data yourself before making any investment decision.