Executive order boosts critical minerals

Yesterday, the White House announced an executive order titled “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production.” The order is intended to increase domestic mineral production and decrease reliance on foreign mineral supplies.

The executive order identifies that “overbearing Federal regulation has eroded our Nation’s mineral production,” and that “national and economic security are now acutely threatened by our reliance upon hostile foreign powers’ mineral production.”

The order includes all critical minerals currently designated by the U.S. government as well as “uranium, copper, potash, gold, and any other element, compound or material as determined by the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC).”

Within 10 days, the head of any department or agency involved in permitting for mineral production must provide a list of projects submitted to that agency to the Chair of the NEDC and will identify priority projects as well as “transparency projects” for a federal permitting dashboard.

Within 10 days, the Secretary of the Interior will identify “all Federal lands known to hold mineral deposits and reserves,” and identify areas suitable for leasing or development, especially prioritizing sites where “projects could be fully permitted and operational as soon as possible.” The order also calls on the Interior Department to submit recommendations within 30 days for dealing with waste rock and tailings under the Mining Act of 1872.

With the executive order, the Secretary of Defense is delegated powers under section 303 of the Defense Production Act to facilitate domestic mineral production. CNN notes (leaving Biden’s use of DPA for the last paragraph of the article):

The act, which was passed in 1950 in response to production needs during the Korean War, gives the government more control during emergencies to direct industrial production. Trump invoked it in 2020 at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic…

In 2022, Biden similarly invoked the Defense Production Act by adding critical minerals to the list of items covered by the law with an aim to kickstart domestic production and mining. Biden’s administration also approved a handful of mining projects for critical minerals.

American Experiment’s October 2024 report, Mission Impossible: Mineral Shortages and the Broken Permitting Process Put Net Zero Goals Out of Reach, describes China’s recent export restrictions on germanium, gallium, antimony, graphite, and rare earth elements as well as export controls on tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, indium and molybdenum.

The U.S. imports 100 percent of the graphite we use and obtains 35 percent of it from China, and China processes nearly 90 percent of all rare earth elements, giving it a near-monopoly.