America Wants to be Self-reliant? List 35 Key Minerals as Key

The U.S. Department of Internal Affairs recently announced that it will expand domestic production of 35 key minerals, including uranium, tungsten, cobalt, lithium, titanium and rare earths, in order to reduce dependence on foreign imports, especially those produced by China and Russia.

These 35 minerals are indispensable raw materials for basic manufacturing, batteries and electronic products. Lithium and cobalt are important materials for making power batteries for electric vehicles. Apple and Tesla are seeking long-term supply of these minerals. Tungsten and rare earth are important materials in modern industry, aerospace and aerospace high-tech fields. Without tungsten and rare earth, automobile manufacturing and military manufacturing will be paralysed, and high-tech fields will be gloomy. In short, Tim Petty, Assistant Secretary for water resources and science at the U.S. Department of the Interior, said any shortage of resources would pose strategic risks to U.S. security and prosperity.

This is also the first step for the Home Tribe to break its dependence on other countries'minerals by signing a presidential decree in December last year. For minerals such as tungsten and rare earths, U.S. intelligence officials warned Congress at the end of February that China was posing a major security threat to the United States. The main contribution of China's military rise and its growing arms trade is its near-complete monopoly of tungsten and rare earth minerals and materials. In the past, the U.S. military relied on these minerals and materials to maintain its technological advantage. But if China imposes strategic restrictions, the United States will become very passive.

Therefore, the United States hopes to find new key mineral sources in China, mainly expanding domestic exploration, mining and recovery, providing better online services for mining companies and producers of maps and geological data, speeding up the process of mining rights and licensing approval for new mines, eliminating the lengthy mine clearance licensing process, and reducing the risk of delays in the opening of new mines with faster licensing. The material needed is needed so that troops and other consumers can have it when they need it, rather than years after the shortage has been identified. For example, increasing the production of non-fuel minerals and fossil fuels in the United States is part of the Trump Administration's U.S. priority policy to expand U.S. exports, which requires a large amount of tungsten to drill in shale oil mines.

To this end, Raytheon Mining Company, which operates the Palette Hill Tungsten Mine in Nevada, said on March 11 that it would comply with the government's decision and concentrate on tungsten and copper mining in the United States.

Recently, the United States has implemented tariff increases on steel and aluminium imports, which has aroused concerns about trade wars. Therefore, the United States has also paid more attention to the self-reliance of strategic minerals in order to prevent competitors from adding strategic minerals to trade wars. At the same time, to further encourage the growth of U.S. manufacturing in key supply chains, Amodei's National Strategy and Important Mineral Production Act will remove major barriers to entry and accelerate the mining licensing process to no more than 30 months. This would be close to the average time limit for ratification in countries such as Canada and Australia, where the process would take about two to three years and similar stringent environmental guidelines would be adopted.

The White House, through its executive order, has shown that it understands the risks of the current costly demining system in the United States and recognizes the potential rewards of encouraging new sources of key materials. Whether through Amodei's bill or other mechanisms, the United States will act to mitigate these risks and encourage new efforts. (China Tungsten Online: Weiping)

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