USA Dependent on Other Countries for Critical and Strategic Minerals

[longknife]

While we have almost everything we need right here in this country. But, Obama's rules and regulations keep us from getting to them.

Rare-earth elements, needed for almost all high-end electronics, are produced almost entirely in China

So, what are we going to do about it? President Trump signed an Executive Order on December 20, 2017, he issued a policy directive, “A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals,

The day after President Trump issued his directive, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke issued a secretarial order, “Critical Mineral Independence and Security,” to direct his staff to take the following actions: 1) identify new sources of critical minerals, 2) develop a list of critical minerals by February 18, 2018, 3) improve the topographic, geological, and geophysical mapping of the United States and make these data accessible to support private sector mineral exploration of critical minerals, and 4) improve access and streamline permitting of mining operations.

More details about this @ The United States Is Dependent on Other Nations for Critical and Strategic Minerals

 

[Moonglow]

Yet the minerals will not be used since it's cheaper to buy from China, just ask Trump he has them do all his family's product line manufacturing...

 

[TheOldSchool]

Yay massive tariffs and subsidies time!

 

[Moonglow]

I doubt you'll find enough chromium to do much with....Why do you think we had South Africa on our side during WWII?

 

[Old Rocks]

Very stupid OP. Economics keeps us from getting them. Yes, we have many minerals that we presently import. We have them in many low grade scatted deposits. Mining them would be very costly, and really, rather stupid. Your echoing of the orange clown's blaming of President Obama for the fact that we lack high grade deposits for many vital minerals is laughable. And how do you expect to find mineral deposits in the US when the clown is cutting the fund for the USGS? What are we going to do, send some holy roller preachers out to search for them?

 

[waltky]

Granny talkin' to her Chinese stock broker `bout buyin' rare earth stocks...

Japan team maps ‘semi-infinite’ rare earth reserves
Thu, Apr 12, 2018 - Japanese researchers have mapped vast reserves of rare earth elements in deep-sea mud, enough to feed global demand on a “semi-infinite basis,” a fresh study said.

The deposit, found within Japan’s exclusive economic waters, contains more than 16 million tonnes of the elements needed to build high-tech products from mobile phones to electric vehicles, according to the study, released on Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports. The team, comprising several universities, businesses and government institutions, surveyed the western Pacific Ocean near Minamitorishima Island, Japan. In a sample area of the mineral-rich region, the team’s survey estimated that there were 1.2 million tonnes of “rare earth oxide” deposited there, said the study, conducted jointly by Yutaro Takaya of Waseda University and Yasuhiro Kato of the University of Tokyo, among others.

The finding extrapolates that a 2,500km2 region off the southern Japanese island should contain 16 million tonnes of the valuable elements and “has the potential to supply these metals on a semi-infinite basis to the world,” the study said. The area reserves offer “great potential as ore deposits for some of the most critically important elements in modern society,” it said. The report said there were hundreds of years of reserves of most of the rare earths in the area surveyed. The team has also developed an efficient method to separate valuable elements from others in the mud. The world relies heavily on China for rare earths, with Beijing producing most of the elements currently available on the market.

However, Beijing has severely restricted exports of these products at times of diplomatic tension. In 2010, for example, Japanese manufacturers faced serious supply shortages as Beijing limited the valuable exports. That came after Japan arrested the captain of a Chinese trawler that was involved in a run-in with Japanese coastguards near the disputed Senkaku Islands — also known as Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), which are also claimed by Taiwan and China. The Japanese study stressed the importance of the efforts to develop efficient and economic methods to collect the deep-sea mud. “The enormous resource amount and the effectiveness of the mineral processing are strong indicators that this new [rare-earth rich mud] resource could be exploited in the near future,” the study said.

Japan team maps ‘semi-infinite’ rare earth reserves - Taipei Times