---
title: First Venezuelan Primary Aluminum Since 2018 Lands in New Orleans, Nine Months After US Forces Seized Maduro
description: The first Venezuelan aluminum since 2018 reached New Orleans on October 5. Aluminum is on the US critical minerals list, and the US imports 60% of what it uses.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-10-13T08:51:19.191Z
updated: 2026-10-13T08:51:19.206Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/is-aluminum-a-critical-mineral-heeney
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/aluminum-ingots-rail-freight-398334.webp
categories: Supply Chains
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Sovereign Magazine
schema_type: Article
---

A 15,000-ton cargo of primary aluminum from Venezuela was unloaded at the Port of Avondale in New Orleans on October 5, the first Venezuelan primary aluminum cargo to reach the United States since an 8,000-ton shipment in 2018. The metal came from Venalum, the state-owned smelter in Puerto Ordaz, and traveled up the Mississippi River to the port, where it is expected to supply US manufacturers. The cargo arrived nine months after US forces seized Venezuela's leader, Nicolás Maduro, in a raid on Caracas.

Heeney Capital, a US investment firm, arranged the shipment with the commodity trader Mercuria Energy Group. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum attended the unloading, along with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Julia Letlow, both Louisiana Republicans. Burgum's department, through the US Geological Survey, keeps the federal list of critical minerals, and aluminum, which the USGS says is used in almost all sectors of the economy, [is on the 2025 edition](https://www.usgs.gov/programs/mineral-resources-program/science/about-2025-list-critical-minerals).

Henry Heeney, a co-founder of Heeney Capital, called the cargo "one of many future shipments of Venezuelan aluminum to the United States" and said it "is part of a larger initiative of American investment into Venezuela." Trade publication AlCircle reported that officials estimate 200,000 to 300,000 tons could move between the two countries over about a year.

Burgum told the gathering that the receiving site had been an abandoned shipyard and now supports 600 to 700 jobs, AlCircle reported. "There isn't a person that gets up and goes through their day in America that doesn't somehow touch aluminum," he said.

## Treasury Licensed Venezuelan Trade After US Forces Seized Maduro

The raid began early on January 3 with US airstrikes on military targets in and around Caracas, and a Delta Force unit took Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, into custody. Both were flown to New York and pleaded not guilty on January 5 to drug-trafficking and weapons charges, which for Maduro include narco-terrorism conspiracy. Their trial is set for June 1, 2027. Cuba said 32 of its military and intelligence personnel were killed in the raid.

The raid capped months of military pressure. The US began massing warships in the southern Caribbean in August 2025, and its strikes on boats that Washington said were carrying drugs had killed more than 100 people by early January. On December 16, President Donald Trump ordered "a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers" going into and out of Venezuela.

Trump said on the day of the raid that the US was "going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition." Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's vice president, was sworn in as acting president on January 5, and two days later the White House said it had "maximum leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela." Trump said on January 6 that Venezuela would hand over 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil and that he would control the proceeds. Rodríguez told the UN General Assembly on September 23 that Venezuela would hold elections, but gave no date.

Since August 2019, US sanctions have barred Americans from dealing with Venezuela's government without authorization from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. This year the office has issued general licenses that let established US companies deal with the Venezuelan government and state firms, including the oil company PdVSA and the mining company Minerven, to export, sell and ship Venezuelan oil, petrochemical products, minerals including gold, and coal.

On August 27 the office dropped a requirement that contracts under several of those licenses be governed by US law. It cited investment-related reforms the Venezuelan government has made since January and said the US government supports American businesses reinvesting in Venezuela.

## Power Shortages Cut Venalum's Output to About 100,000 Tons a Year

In 2001 Venezuela was the world's 12th-largest producer of primary aluminum, and from 2001 to 2008 it made about 600,000 tons a year. Venalum, commissioned in 1979, ran on hydroelectric power from the Guri complex on the Caroní River.

Production began falling in 2009, when the state power company Corpoelec ran into underinvestment and mismanagement and drought lowered the Guri reservoir. The government rationed electricity and ordered the smelters to cut their power use, and hundreds of smelting cells shut down. By 2014, only 262 of Venalum's 905 cells were running, according to an internal report cited by AlCircle.

A nationwide blackout in March 2019 stopped the cells still operating at Venalum and at the smaller Alcasa smelter. Alcasa never restarted. Venalum recovered only partly and now produces about 100,000 tons a year, against a capacity of about 430,000 tons. The consultancy Wood Mackenzie has estimated that reviving Venezuela's aluminum industry, from bauxite mining through refining and smelting, would cost $1.6 billion to $2.3 billion.

## Mercuria and Glencore Have Discussed Running the Smelter

Bloomberg News reported in September that Mercuria, working with Heeney Capital, and Glencore had held talks with the Venezuelan government about taking over operations at Venalum and securing access to its aluminum. Glencore has ties to Venezuela's state aluminum industry going back more than two decades and has financed the country's producers before. Bloomberg reported that no final agreement had been reached.

## Canada Supplies More Than Half of US Aluminum Imports

The US imported 4.4 million tons of crude and semi-fabricated aluminum in 2025 and relied on imports for 60% of what it consumed, according to [US Geological Survey figures](https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-aluminum.pdf). From 2021 through 2024, Canada supplied 56% of US aluminum imports, the United Arab Emirates 8%, Bahrain 4% and China 3%. In the first half of 2026 the US imported about 908,000 tons of primary aluminum from Canada, AlCircle reported.

US smelters produced about 660,000 tons of primary aluminum in 2025, roughly half of their 1.31 million tons of capacity. The Venezuelan cargo unloaded in New Orleans equals about 0.3% of 2025 US imports, and the 200,000 to 300,000 tons officials estimate for the coming year would equal roughly 5% to 7%.

## FAQ

**Q: Is aluminum considered a critical mineral?**
Yes. Aluminum is on the US Geological Survey's final 2025 List of Critical Minerals, which has 60 entries. Under the Energy Act of 2020, a critical mineral is one that is essential to US economic or national security, has a supply chain vulnerable to disruption, and is essential to making a product whose absence would have significant consequences. The Secretary of the Interior develops the list with the USGS, and it must be reviewed at least every three years.

**Q: How much aluminum does the US produce itself?**
About 660,000 tons of primary aluminum in 2025, according to the US Geological Survey. Three companies ran six primary smelters in five states that year: two at full capacity, two at reduced capacity, and two, in Hawesville, Kentucky, and New Madrid, Missouri, temporarily shut since 2022 and 2024. Domestic smelter capacity was 1.31 million tons a year.

**Q: What tariff applies to imported aluminum?**
A Section 232 tariff. The US set it at 25% in March 2025 and ended country exemptions, then raised it to 50% in June 2025 for most countries, with the United Kingdom staying at 25%, according to the USGS. As of an April 2026 proclamation, articles made entirely or almost entirely of aluminum pay a flat 50% on their full value.

**Q: Is Venezuelan aluminum allowed into the US?**
Yes, with Treasury authorization. Venalum is state-owned, so US companies need permission from Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control to deal with it. General licenses issued in 2026 let established US companies deal with Venezuela's government and state firms to export, sell and ship Venezuelan-origin oil, petrochemical products, minerals and coal, and a 15,000-ton Venezuelan cargo was unloaded in New Orleans on October 5, 2026.