President Trump’s Roundtable On American Mining A Positive Signal For Gillon Capital Acquisition Of Canada’s Sherritt International Corporation. And Possible Settlement For Largest Certified Claim?
/President Trump’s Roundtable On American Mining A Positive Signal For Gillon Capital Acquisition Of Canada’s Sherritt International Corporation
New Potential For Largest And Third Largest Certified Claimants To Merge Interests For Re-Entry To Cuba
7 August 2026: “3:00 p.m. [United States] Secretary [Marco] Rubio [2025- ] attends President Trump’s Roundtable on American Mining at the Department of State.”
“I wanted to briefly – very briefly – touch on what the State Department’s done. Earlier this year we had a Critical Minerals Ministerial. We brought in countries from all over the world to – and announced the creation of something called FORGE [Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement], which is an international partnership chaired by us in the United States to leverage public finance and coordinate diplomatic support to secure these supply chains around the world. At that meeting, we signed eleven new critical minerals agreements with countries, adding to the ones that already existed. Today, under your administration, we’ve already signed twenty-seven critical mineral agreements with other countries.”
The White House
Washington DC
7 August 2026
“PRIORITIZING DOMESTIC CRITICAL MATERIALS AND THEIR SUPPLY CHAINS: President Trump is ensuring America’s critical materials and critical supply chains are robust and secure to reduce reliance on hostile foreign countries, protect our national security, and strengthen the economic resilience of vital industries.”
“RESTORING AMERICAN INDUSTRY: President Trump’s leadership is restoring America’s mining industry and national and economic security, ensuring reliable supplies of critical materials and supply chains.”
“In July 2026, President Trump signed an Executive Order to secure America’s defense supply chains for the cutting-edge equipment that allows the U.S. to dominate the modern battlefield, particularly, ensuring domestic supplies of the critical materials and components necessary to manufacture that equipment.”
Dallas, Texas-based Gillon Capital, LLC is seeking to control 55% of Toronto, Canada-based Sherritt International Corporation (2025 revenue approximately US$389 million) which has cobalt, nickel, and energy operations in the Republic of Cuba.
The transaction would permit settlement of the third largest of the 5,913 claims certified by the United States Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (USFCSC) within the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) along with make available for import to the United States additional supplies of cobalt and nickel. CU-2619: MOA Bay Mining Company, Improved Real Property, Oriente, Republic of Cuba, US$88,349,000.00. Link To Claim Filing In PDF Format
The proposed transaction may have been complicated or may have been enhanced by a Libertad Act Title III Lawsuit filed on 29 July 2026.
By incorporating a settlement of the third-largest certified claim with a settlement of a component of the largest certified claim, meaningful impediments would be addressed for United States-based companies as sources of Direct Foreign Investment (DFI) for the Republic of Cuba.
Greenwich, Connecticut-based Atlas Holdings (2025 assets approximately US$16 billion) which owns Boca Raton-based Office Depot, Inc. (2025 revenue approximately US$7 billion) which is the owner of the Cuban Electric Company which has the largest certified claim valued at US$267,568,413.62, filed a Libertad Act Title III lawsuit again Republic of Cuba government-operated Union Electrica and Energas S.A. (within which Sherritt International Corporation has a 33% shareholding).
From the company: “Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut and founded in 2002, Atlas and its affiliates own and operate 27 companies, which employ more than 57,000 associates across more than 350 facilities worldwide. Atlas operates in sectors such as automotive supply, building materials, capital equipment, construction services, food manufacturing and distribution, metals processing, packaging, paper, power generation, printing, pulp, supply chain management and wood products. Atlas’ companies together generate approximately $18 billion in revenues annually.”
CUBAN ELECTRIC COMPANY A/K/A COMPAÑIA CUBANA DE ELECTRICIDAD, Plaintiff, v. UNIÓN ELÉCTRICA AND ENERGAS S.A., Defendants. (1:26-cv-02675-JDB). NOTE: Steptoe LLP also represents the eighth-largest curtained claimant Spring, Texas-based ExxonMobil Corporation (2025 revenue approximately US$332 billion) in its Libertad Act Title III lawsuit filed in 2019 against Republic of Cuba government-operated Corporación Cimex, S.A. and Republic of Cuba government-operated Unión Cuba-Petróleo (CUPET). Link To Complaint
From the complaint: “Defendant Energas S.A. is an enterprise organized under the laws of Cuba as a joint venture with three equal owners: 1/3 owner UNE, 1/3 owner Unión Cubapetróleo (“CUPET”), Cuba’s state-owned oil company, and 1/3 owner Sherritt International Corporation (“Sherritt”), a minerals company which is a corporation organized under the laws of Canada with its principal place of business in Canada. Thus, Energas is majority-owned by Cuban state-owned entities. Energas processes raw natural gas, which is supplied to Energas free of charge by CUPET. Energas also generates electricity for sale to the national grid, providing approximately 10% of Cuba’s total electrical generating capacity. Energas’ principal place of business is in Cuba, and it has operations throughout the country.”
The Trump-Pence Administration (2017-2021) on 2 May 2019 made operational Title III of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 (known as “Libertad Act”).
Title III authorizes lawsuits in United States District Courts against companies and individuals who are using a certified claim or non-certified claim where the owner of the certified claim or non-certified claim has not received compensation from the Republic of Cuba or from a third-party who is using (“trafficking”) the asset. Link To Libertad Act Lawsuit Filing Statistics
LINK TO COMPLETE ANALYSIS IN PDF FORMAT
Links To Related Analyses
Potential Triple Play? Carney, Diaz-Canel, Trump Deal. U.S. Secretary Of Defense Hegseth Wants Cobalt. Cuba Has It. Settling One Libertad Act Issue. And Opening Doors? August 23, 2025
Canada's Sherritt Questions "ability to continue" While OFAC Considers U.S. Company License Application To Save Company, Invest In Cuba, Settle A Certified Claim, Export Nickel And Cobalt To U.S. June 26, 2026
120-Day Cuba Countdown Clock. Will Trump Administration Approve U.S. Company's Takeover Of Canada's Sherritt International Corporation? June 23, 2026
Due To Trump Administration Cuba-Related Executive Orders And SDN List Additions, Canada's Sherritt International Corporation May Sell 55% To U.S. Company May 20, 2026
Canada's Sherritt Reports That "dissolution [of GNC] is required as a result of a material adverse change that is an immediate change under the MSA and that there is inadequate time for arbitration" May 15, 2026
Cuba Has Nickel And Cobalt. Vehicle Electric Batteries Use Nickel And Cobalt. Cuba Should Benefit. September 25, 2021
Related Article
6 August 2026: Reuters- The Democratic Republic of Congo has banned exports of copper concentrate and cobalt concentrate as it escalates efforts to force domestic processing and retain more value from its mineral resources, a government order reviewed by Reuters on Thursday shows. After Reuters reported the ban, benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose by as much as 1.8% to $14,369.50 a metric ton, the highest since January 29 when the metal hit an all-time peak of $14,527.50.
Congo is seeking to leverage its position as the world's largest cobalt supplier and a major source of other energy-transition minerals, including copper, to build domestic processing capacity and retain a greater share of the wealth flowing from its mines. The June 29 order, signed by Mines Minister Louis Kabamba Watum, Foreign Trade Minister Julien Paluku Kahongya and Economy Minister Daniel Mukoko Samba, says "the export of copper and cobalt concentrates is prohibited".
The ban takes effect immediately, although one-year export waivers may be granted under strategic circumstances, the order said, without explaining further. It also introduced a tax regime with a three-month transition period for economically significant mining by-products.
In a statement posted on the LSEG platform on Thursday, Ivanhoe Mines (IVN.TO), opens new tab said its Kamoa-Kakula copper complex - a joint venture with China's Zijin Mining (601899.SS), opens new tab and the Congolese government - had received multiple exemptions allowing it to export copper concentrate since production began in 2021.
"Currently, copper concentrate produced by Kamoa-Kakula is smelted at the on-site smelter or at the Lualaba copper smelter, in Kolwezi. In addition, the Kipushi Mine has a derogation in place allowing the export of the operation's zinc concentrates," the company said.
The ban was motivated by "the need to encourage mining operators to market or export commercial mineral products with high added value," the order said. Congo has imposed bans on copper and cobalt concentrate exports in 2013, 2019 and 2023, while granting waivers where domestic smelting capacity was insufficient. The latest order repeals the 2023 order and its exemptions, and replaces it with a broader framework governing mineral exports and the taxation of economically significant mining by-products.
Congo mostly exports copper in the form of refined metal. It exported 696,725 tons of copper cathodes in the first quarter of 2026, compared with 53,926 tons of copper concentrates containing 18,863 tons of copper metal, according to official data. It also shipped 51,940 tons of cobalt hydroxides containing 17,054 tons of cobalt metal over the same period.
Christian-Geraud Neema, a mining analyst at non-profit organisation the China-Global South Project, said the latest ban was unlikely to have a severe impact on most operators as the bulk of Congo's copper and cobalt is already refined domestically. He said the most affected could be Kamoa-Kakula as it still exports some concentrate under exemptions. Zijin did not immediately respond to a request for comment and neither did the Congolese chamber of mines. The new tax regime covers a wide range of minerals and says the tax on mining by-products applies to trace and ultra-trace minerals recovered during refining using a 55% valuation coefficient, with royalties charged alongside those on the main mineral.
