Oversight Hearing on "Now Ore Never: The Importance of Domestic Mining for U.S. National Security"

Energy and Mineral Resources

2025-02-06

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Source: Congress.gov

Summary

This meeting of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources focused on the critical issue of U.S. reliance on foreign critical minerals, particularly from China, and the urgent need to strengthen domestic supply chains. Discussion revolved around the economic, national security, and environmental implications of current mineral policies and potential solutions to ensure a more secure and sustainable future for American mineral resources.

Themes

U.S. Reliance on Foreign Critical Minerals & China's Dominance

The United States faces significant import dependence for critical minerals, importing over 50% of its needs, and 100% for nearly a quarter of listed critical minerals. <citation data-id="1.5" data-id="1.6"></citation> China holds a dominant position, controlling approximately 60% of global production, 90% of processing, and 75% of manufacturing for these minerals. <citation data-id="1.8"></citation> This dominance allows China to use export bans, such as those recently on antimony, gallium, germanium, and tungsten, as a form of economic warfare, disrupting U.S. supply chains for both civilian and defense applications. <citation data-id="1.14" data-id="1.16" data-id="42.5" data-id="42.6"></citation> Concerns were also raised about human rights abuses, including child slave labor, in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, often financed by China. <citation data-id="1.9" data-id="1.10" data-id="1.13"></citation>

Challenges to Domestic Mineral Production

Domestic mineral projects in the U.S. face significant hurdles, with an average timeline of 29 years from discovery to production. <citation data-id="1.20" data-id="1.21" data-id="184.5"></citation> This prolonged timeline is attributed to high costs, permitting delays, and litigation initiated by anti-mining groups. <citation data-id="1.23" data-id="12.19" data-id="12.21"></citation> The outdated Mining Law of 1872 is criticized for lacking modern environmental and public health protections, prioritizing mining over other land uses, and not requiring royalties from mining companies. <citation data-id="2.26" data-id="2.28" data-id="32.5" data-id="32.6"></citation> Administrative actions, such as the cancellation of mineral leases and withdrawal of mineral-rich lands, are also cited as barriers to domestic production. <citation data-id="1.18" data-id="18.5" data-id="60.7"></citation>

Solutions & Recommendations for Strengthening U.S. Mineral Security

Several solutions were proposed to enhance U.S. mineral security. Permitting reform is highlighted as crucial to streamline processes, reduce bureaucracy, and establish predictable timelines without compromising environmental standards. <citation data-id="8.41" data-id="12.15" data-id="12.33"></citation> Modernizing the 1872 Mining Law to include environmental safeguards, tribal consultation requirements, and royalties for taxpayers is also seen as essential. <citation data-id="2.37" data-id="14.34" data-id="32.7"></citation> Targeted financial incentives, such as tax credits and public-private partnerships, are recommended to de-risk private investment in domestic mining and processing. <citation data-id="12.13" data-id="12.45" data-id="12.46"></citation> Emphasis was also placed on fostering a circular economy through increased recycling, reuse, and resource efficiency, particularly for electronics, to reduce overall demand for new mineral extraction. <citation data-id="2.39" data-id="14.17" data-id="14.20"></citation> Finally, strengthening alliances with other nations and ensuring meaningful engagement with Native American tribes are considered vital for secure and ethical supply chains. <citation data-id="8.55" data-id="14.13" data-id="85.1"></citation>

Environmental & Social Considerations

The discussion acknowledged the environmental consequences of mining, including water contamination, toxic waste generation, and impacts on sensitive ecosystems. <citation data-id="2.33" data-id="14.7" data-id="14.12"></citation> Many critical mineral deposits are located in areas with high water stress or overlap with important habitats like trout and salmon spawning grounds. <citation data-id="14.9" data-id="14.10"></citation> The importance of protecting sacred tribal lands and ensuring tribal sovereignty through meaningful consultation was repeatedly emphasized. <citation data-id="2.31" data-id="6.23" data-id="6.40" data-id="84.1"></citation> However, examples like the Stibnite Gold Project were presented where mining redevelopment is designed to remediate legacy environmental damage, improving water quality and restoring habitats. <citation data-id="16.7" data-id="20.5" data-id="20.9" data-id="20.10"></citation>

Tone of the Meeting

The tone of the meeting was largely urgent and concerned, with participants expressing deep worry over the U.S.'s growing dependence on foreign adversaries for critical minerals. <citation data-id="1.3" data-id="1.17" data-id="2.21" data-id="4.16"></citation> There was a bipartisan desire for solutions to strengthen domestic supply chains, though significant divides in approach were evident. Republican members often advocated for deregulation and accelerated domestic production, frequently criticizing the current administration's policies. <citation data-id="1.18" data-id="1.24" data-id="1.25" data-id="19.6"></citation> Democratic members, while acknowledging the need for minerals, stressed the importance of responsible mining practices, environmental protection, tribal sovereignty, and the development of a circular economy. <citation data-id="2.24" data-id="2.28" data-id="6.17" data-id="14.7"></citation> A shared frustration with regulatory bureaucracy and lengthy permitting processes was also a prominent theme. <citation data-id="1.20" data-id="1.23" data-id="12.26" data-id="16.30"></citation> Overall, a strong patriotic and "America First" sentiment permeated the discussions, emphasizing U.S. leadership in mining and processing using American workers and standards. <citation data-id="4.3" data-id="12.54" data-id="23.9" data-id="30.1"></citation>

Participants

Transcript

important mining projects, including those in my district.  In fact, the Biden administration finally acted at the 11th hour last month on Perpetua's Stibnite Gold project that we will be discussing today, only after China announced a mineral export ban, forcing the Pentagon to plead with the White House to approve the project.   This project should have been approved years ago, and the Biden administration's failure to do so earlier has put our country's national security at risk.  Given the importance of these minerals and their existence throughout the United States, it is astonishing that we rely so heavily on imports.  The US Geological Survey's own figures show that the United States is forced to import more than 50% of the minerals on its critical minerals list.   Wildly, we import 100% of nearly a quarter of minerals that we list as critical.  Worse yet, our close allies are not the nations upon which we rely for these key commodities.  Most notably, China controls approximately 60% of global critical minerals production, 90% of processing, and 75% of manufacturing.   According to the International Energy Agency's 2024 Global Critical Minerals Outlook, by 2030, Indonesia is also projected to control 62% of global nickel mining, and the Democratic Republic of Congo will account for 66% of cobalt mining, where they mine cobalt using child slave labor, and that's a fact.  Many of these mines are directly financed by China,   which was a point highlighted in a recent report compiled by AidData at the College of William and Mary.
According to the report between 2000 and 2021, Chinese financial institutions provided nearly 57 billion in loans to 19 low and middle income countries, including copper and cobalt from the Democrat Republic of Congo and Peru and nickel from Indonesia.   Not only does Chinese mineral dominance enable worldwide labor and human rights abuses, including child enforced labor, but it also gives the Communist country of China a stranglehold on America's economic and our national security.  Two months ago, China announced the ban of critical mineral exports to the United States to include antimony, gallium, germanium and other dual use minerals vital for both civilian and defense applications.   China also has a long track record of strategically dumping its products onto global markets in order to stifle our attempts to build out secure mineral supply chains.  And just this week, the CCP placed new expert controls on five additional minerals that are key components in a range of industries from energy development to cell phones to infrared missiles.  Our reliance on foreign critical minerals is completely unacceptable.   Yet rather than heed the call of House Republicans to combat our nation's failure to secure domestic critical mineral supply chains, former President Biden chose to kneecap America by canceling decades-old mineral leases and withdrawing hundreds of thousands of mineral-rich acres in states like Minnesota, Arizona, and New Mexico, among others.   But our self-inflicted wounds do not end there.  A recent S&P Global study revealed that it takes an average of 29 years for a critical mineral project to progress from the discovery of the mineral to production in the United States.
The only country in this world that takes longer to open up a mine is in Zambia.  This absurd.   absurd timeline is driven by high cost and uncertainty from permitting delays and the risk of litigation initiated by radical anti-mining groups.  Fortunately, on the first day of his second term, President Trump signed an executive order titled Unleashing American Energy, which directs federal agencies to review   and revise or revoke any agency actions that potentially burden the development of domestic energy sources, including critical and other hard rock minerals.  This committee looks forward to working with the Trump administration to realize a golden age of American domestic critical mineral dominance.  And I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me today for a dynamic discussion about the importance of critical minerals to our economic,   and our national security and how we can secure domestic critical mineral supply chains to propel us towards a brighter future.  I want to thank the witnesses again for their willingness to testify today and I look forward to hearing about how we can assure our national security by ensuring mineral security.  And now I want to   yield to my new ranking colleague, Representative Ansari, for her opening statement.  And Representative, it's great to have you on this committee.  You're going to do great work, and I look forward to our conversations.  Welcome.
Thank you, Chair Stauber.  It is great to join you.  I'm thrilled to be here today and I'm honored to serve as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources this Congress.  I look forward to working collaboratively and in a bipartisan way to get things done whenever possible.  I was drawn to the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee because we're handling issues that touch the daily lives of all of our constituents.   When we in Congress make decisions about mining and energy development, it impacts everything from jobs to the cost of energy to the quality of the air that we breathe and the water that we drink.  And of course, if we are addressing the climate crisis or making it worse.  My constituents sent me to Washington, D.C., to fight for them for clean air, clean water, lower prices and safe places to live, work and play.   Arizonans know too well what it's like to live with the impacts of climate change.  The communities I represent are on the front lines, facing unprecedented extreme heat and water scarcity.  In fact, hundreds of Arizonans die every summer as a result of extreme heat.  And this is driven by our dependence on polluting fossil fuels, which puts our well-being at the whims of big oil companies and their billionaire allies.   This dependence must end.  It won't be easy, but we can and we must transition to a clean energy economy.  This transition relies on materials like copper, lithium, and cobalt to build the transition lines, batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines that we need.   During my time on the Phoenix City Council, I served as a councilwoman and vice mayor of the city, fifth largest city in the country.

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