America's Growing Minerals Deficit; The U.S. is now tied for last, with Papua New Gui

[emptystep]

After every election, there's a mad scramble in Washington over the must-make-it-happen agenda for the newly inaugurated president and Congress. There are welcome signs from the White House's own Material Genome Initiative that securing America's access to critical metals and minerals will be high on the list.

A good thing, too. Jobs and capital increasingly flow to countries that command the resources to power modern manufacturing, and American manufacturing is more dependent on metals and minerals access than ever before. Yet there is no country on the planet where it takes longer to get a permit for domestic mining. Among other consequences of this red tape, there are now 19 strategic metals and minerals for which the U.S. is currently 100% import-dependent--and for 11 of them a single country, China, is among the top three providers.

Even so, the president's interest in the subject is a double-edged sword: Will U.S. policies be guided by sound science? Or will they be unduly influenced by environmental politics--despite the fact that many minerals we need are essential components for the production of green energy?

General Electric, for instance, is now using 72 of the first 82 elements on the periodic table in its product-manufacturing mix. Not just iron, lead and copper, either. GE also needs zinc, aluminum, tin and nickel--elements that the American Resources Policy Network argues are best understood as "gateway metals," resources whose byproducts include scores of critical metals recovered during mining.

In a world where the technology industry regards a year as an eternity, waiting a decade for new supplies of critical technology metals will severely hamper America's ability to innovate. Without significant reform of the country's mining-permit process, the U.S. may be starved of the resources to build everything from smartphones to weapons systems, impairing both the economy and national security.

McGroarty, D. (2013, Jan 31). America's growing minerals deficit; the U.S. is now tied for last, with papua new guinea, in the time it takes to get a permit for a new mine. Wall Street Journal (Online).


We should only be concerned about what happens within our own borders? Think sequester isn't going to hurt this nation's future? Know who has a huge role, perhaps the single largest role, in securing world cooperation with America's interests. State Department. Cut their budget at this county's peril.

 

[Old Rocks]

Two things occur to me in that regard. One is the past history of mining companies that mine the minerals, take the profit, and leave it up to we taxpayers to clean the environmental disasters they leave behind. The second is that we have been using minerals at a much greater rate than about anybody, maybe with the exception of Great Britain.

Yet, there are answers using present sources. Simplot is building a plant to process the brine at the geothermal plant in Southern California, and that may actually result in making the US a net exporter of lithium. Wonder how many other minerals are available with a bit of out of the box thinking?