WASHINGTON, D.C. – The administration this week highlighted the strategic importance of minerals mining to the United States, issuing an Executive Order titled, “A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals.”
“It is encouraging to see the administration identifying as a strategic priority the nation’s domestic minerals and metals, which serve as the front end of the supply chain for American prosperity and security,” said National Mining Association (NMA) president and CEO Hal Quinn.
The Executive Order recognizes that the U.S. is heavily reliant on imports of certain mineral commodities that are vital to the nation’s security and economic prosperity, creating a strategic vulnerability for both its economy and military to adverse foreign government action, natural disaster, and other events that can disrupt supply of these key minerals.
The Order calls on U.S. government agencies to identify ways to both streamline the permitting processes to expedite exploration, production, processing, reprocessing, recycling, and domestic refining of critical minerals; and to ensure that miners and producers have electronic access to the most advanced topographic, geologic, and geophysical data within U.S. territory; among other actions.
“This administration correctly recognizes that a reliable, secure minerals supply chain is of utmost importance to addressing America’s national security, infrastructure and manufacturing needs. Our country’s dependence on mineral imports has doubled over the past 20 years. Today, less than half of the mineral needs of U.S. manufacturing are met from domestically mined minerals, and we are 100 percent import-dependent for 20 key minerals. These trends will only worsen if we do not advance policies that enable U.S. mining to perform to its potential.”
“We look forward to working with the Trump administration to remove current obstacles that hamper domestic minerals mining.”
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