Following the Export-Import Bank of the United States' announcement of $58 million in new critical-mineral transactions, the firm is expanding its independent feasibility study services for critical-mineral extraction, processing, refining and advanced-material projects — market, economic and financial analysis prepared to withstand EXIM project-finance and Make More in America review.
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. — Wert-Berater, Inc., an independent feasibility study and capital-advisory firm serving lenders and government agencies since 1998, today announced an expansion of its independent feasibility study services for critical-mineral, rare-earth, mineral-processing and advanced-material projects seeking financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM). The expansion follows EXIM's August 7, 2026 announcement of $58 million across three new critical-mineral transactions supporting domestic graphite, tantalum and niobium, and boron production.
The availability of a financing pathway does not settle whether an individual project can be underwritten. EXIM's published project-finance information requirements call for a summary of the project contained in an independently prepared feasibility study and/or detailed information memorandum prepared by a qualified party, and EXIM's project-finance approach expects completed feasibility work, front-end engineering and design, an approved Environmental and Social Impact Assessment and a preliminary finance plan to be in place before an application is filed. The firm's fiduciary duty runs to the lender and the agency in every engagement, and its fee is never contingent on the finding.
Each engagement is built around the questions a credit officer and EXIM's own independent consultants will ask. Market analysis covers demand and forecast demand, historical and projected pricing, end-use markets, import dependence, competing and planned capacity, customer concentration, substitution risk and export markets — narrowed to the market actually accessible to the project's specifications, purity, form, geography and customers rather than a global tonnage forecast. Technical work produced by the project's qualified engineers, geologists and metallurgists is reviewed and reconciled to the financial model, not re-authored: production targets must be supported by equipment capacity, recovery rates, feedstock availability and operating hours before they become revenue.
Capital and operating cost analysis tests site and plant development, equipment, infrastructure, engineering and EPC, owner's costs, contingency, interest during construction, startup and working capital against comparable facilities, and covers labor, feedstock, energy, reagents, consumables, maintenance, transportation and environmental compliance. Because these projects typically depend on a concentrated group of industrial buyers, the analysis separates contracted revenue from merchant revenue and examines minimum purchase obligations, pricing formulas, counterparty creditworthiness and termination provisions — applying the same discipline upstream to third-party feedstock, concentrates and intermediates.
The financial model is fully linked, with no hardcoded values, and reports cash flow available for debt service, coverage by period, break-even production and break-even price alongside project and equity returns. The base case is then stressed for commodity price declines, lower production and recovery, cost overruns, construction delay, higher input costs, slower ramp, customer loss, offtake delay and combined downside scenarios. A project that services its debt only when every assumption performs perfectly has not demonstrated bankability.
EXIM's Make More in America Initiative makes the agency's existing medium- and long-term loans, loan guarantees and insurance available to export-oriented domestic manufacturing projects. EXIM's published criteria set the required export nexus — the percentage of production or shipments tied to exports — at 15 percent for small businesses, transformational export areas and climate-related transactions, and 25 percent for projects in other sectors, with the amount of financing scaled to the U.S. jobs a project supports. Which threshold applies to a particular critical-mineral project is a determination for EXIM and any participating lender.
The firm's MMIA-oriented work documents those assumptions as evidence rather than aspiration: export activity supported by identified markets and counterparties, and a jobs claim tied to a staffing plan the operating model can pay for. That work sits on top of ordinary feasibility analysis; it does not substitute for demand, cost or repayment analysis.
Wert-Berater, Inc. is not affiliated with, endorsed by, retained by, or an agent of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and did not participate in the transactions EXIM announced on August 7, 2026, which are referenced solely as publicly announced examples of the agency's critical-minerals financing activity. Eligibility, creditworthiness, financing terms and final approval are determined by EXIM and participating lenders. A study concluding that a project is not supportable is a legitimate outcome and is delivered as such.
Services are available nationwide for critical-mineral mining and extraction, rare earth elements, graphite, tantalum and niobium, boron and borates, lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese, copper, zinc and titanium, antimony and tungsten, advanced alloys, battery and permanent-magnet materials, semiconductor inputs, refining, beneficiation, separation and purification, recycling and recovery, and advanced-material manufacturing. Each engagement is scoped, timelined and fee-quoted before work begins.
Wert-Berater, Inc. is an independent feasibility study consulting firm founded in 1998, providing lender- and agency-facing feasibility studies, highest-and-best-use analyses, and capital-advisory support. The firm has completed more than 4,000 engagements across all 50 states and internationally, evaluating over $40.2 billion in project value for SBA, USDA, EB-5, conventional, and institutional financing decisions. In every engagement, fiduciary duty runs to the lender and the applicable agency.
Media contact: Donald Safranek, MSc, President, Wert-Berater, Inc. — +1 310-857-2443 ext. 800. Press inquiries only; client, lender, and property identities remain confidential.
President, Wert-Berater, Inc. — independent feasibility study consultants since 1998. More than 4,000 feasibility studies completed across all 50 states and internationally, evaluating $40.2 billion in project value for SBA, USDA, EB-5, conventional, and institutional financing decisions. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and agency in every engagement.
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Schedule a ConversationIndependent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $40.2 billion in evaluated project value. Standard delivery in 10 to 15 business days. Fiduciary duty to the lender and agency.