Rare earths have been in the news. I wrote here about the Trump administration’s agreement with Australia to develop rare earth deposits in that country, and Trump announced today that his trade agreement with China includes a one-year pause on China’s imposition of export controls on rare earths.
Rare earths, happily, are not rare. But they are only one instance of a broader issue–our government’s suicidal decision to rely on other countries, in most cases China, for minerals that are absolutely vital to both our economy and our national security. This was a conscious decision that must be reversed immediately.
My friend Debra Struhsacker, one of the world’s top mining experts, explained why we face this crisis in a letter to the Wall Street Journal that was published today:
Regarding “China Built Rare-Earth Dominance Diligently Since 1990s” (Page One, Oct. 21): U.S. policy has played a significant role in letting China gain global hegemony over rare earths and other critical minerals. More than three decades of indifference and hostility toward mining have hollowed out the U.S. mining industry, creating the supply-chain vacuum that China is filling.
Since 1990, Congress and presidents of both parties have put millions of acres of potentially mineralized lands off limits. Lawmakers have tried to gut the U.S. Mining Law, which governs access to minerals on western federal lands, where many important deposits are located. Federal agencies have developed regulations designed to make mining difficult or impossible. Congress stopped funding the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1995, leaving the federal government without mining expertise.
Because U.S. policy has discouraged investment in domestic mineral exploration and development, the pipeline of mineral discoveries poised to become new mines is nearly dry, requiring reliance on foreign minerals despite abundant U.S. resources.
President Trump recognizes that we have a minerals emergency and the imperative to eliminate China’s stranglehold on the minerals that are the foundation of our economy and national security. His administration is removing the roadblocks to domestic mining by streamlining permitting, revising problematic regulations, investing in U.S. mineral projects and collaborating with allies like Australia to help provide the minerals our economy and military must have while we rebuild a domestic mining industry.
DEBRA W. STRUHSACKER
Reno, Nev.
Rebuilding our mining industry will take time, and the hour is late. This must be a top priority of the Trump administration, and of succeeding administrations.
