A “dangerous lapse in the supply chain for strategic and critical materials” will be examined by the U.S. Congress.
With an eye to national defence, American lawmakers will decide whether their government should help develop domestic supplies of rare minerals. A Congressional bill introduced March 7, Rep. Duncan Hunter’s proposed METALS Act (Materials Essential to American Leadership and Security) would offer a number of inducements to create supply lines for strategic and critical commodities.
“The U.S. must no longer be wholly dependent on foreign sources of strategic and critical materials,” said Hunter, a veteran of two combat tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. “The risk of this dependence on national security is too great and it urgently demands that we re-establish our depleted domestic industrial base.”
Pointing to China’s lockhold on over 90% of global rare earths supply, Hunter argued the U.S. has “ceded” its ability to produce REEs. Following the bankruptcy of the last U.S. rare earths miner, Molycorp “sold a portion of its assets to the Chinese,” said a statement from Hunter’s office. “The mine is now being considered for purchase by a firm with ties to a Russian billionaire.”
As reported by the Wall Street Journal last month, a group including Vladimir Iorich’s Pala Investments has offered US$40 million for Molycorp’s former Mountain Pass mine in California. The METALS Act would prohibit foreign acquisition of American rare earths deposits.
It would also provide five-year interest-free loans for new production or manufacturing techniques involving strategic or critical minerals. Additionally, Washington would reimburse defence programs for higher costs of domestic products. Funding would divert 1% of Department of Defense administration spending, Hunter said.
The act would also bar foreign interests from sourcing American supplies of ammonium perchlorate, a propellant for rockets and missiles. The bill further calls for a study on the viability of using thorium-fuelled nuclear reactors in naval vessels.
Besides encouraging supply chains essential to national security, the bill “supports the U.S. domestic industrial base by aiding domestic investment opportunities,” according to Hunter’s office.
Speaking with ResourceClips.com last month, David S. Abraham expressed skepticism about Hunter’s proposal. “Most bills on critical materials have not passed and his bills usually have the least chance of passing…” said the author of The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age. “That’s not to say the U.S. hasn’t given money to metallurgy and mining before, but with the exception of some dabbling in beryllium in the ’90s, I can’t recall a time where the U.S. was really investing in mines from a defence perspective.”
But Washington defence lobbyist Jeff Green told ResourceClips.com of “a totally different dynamic” in circles of power that would be willing to “invest in America to protect our national security and grow our manufacturing base.”
A January report from the U.S. Geological Survey stated the country was wholly dependent on foreign sources for 20 minerals last year, some of them considered critical or strategic “because they are essential to the economy and their supply may be disrupted.”
As of press time Hunter’s office hadn’t responded to an interview request.
