My, baby, mine! – Watt?

Mineral exploration in the West and Alaska is key to U.S. defense, security and recovery

Paul Driessen

President Trump is determined to make the United States not just energy self-sufficient; dominant. The United States already produces more oil and natural gas than any other country, and he intends to realize its full energy potential and Suitable for use in more than 6,000 petrochemical raw materials for pharmaceuticals, plastics, paints, fabrics, cosmetics and other products. As he says, “Drill, baby, drill!”

Abundant, reliable, and affordable energy is the lifeblood of modern industrial society. But they also require hundreds of metals and minerals, because without them nothing can be made or grown, nor can wells be dug. That's why the president has launched a similar initiative for Alaska and the treasure trove of the lower 48 states.

This call to action is “Mine, baby, mine!” before that “Explore, baby, explore!”

The Stone Age didn't end because our ancestors ran out of stone, nor did the Bronze Age end because copper supplies ran out. They ended because society needed better, stronger, more durable weapons and goods—and innovators discovered iron substitutes, iron ore deposits, and the technology to convert the ore into finished products.

Virtually every technological change in history has required the search and extraction of previously unknown and unwanted metals and mineral deposits that suddenly became critical to progress.

Trump-47’s Drilling and Mining Executive Orders — as well as ending offshore wind, Green New Deal, and electric vehicle mandates, subsidies, and programs — would drastically reduce access to millions of tons of copper, steel, cobalt, lithium, rare earths, and other materials need. However, they won't ending That need.

But now America can simply build more coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants—instead of 10,000 wind turbines and 10,000,000 solar panels, supporter Fossil fuel generators…or giant battery warehouses like the one that sparked another recent fire in California.

Yet today’s rapidly advancing server, AI, aerospace, military and other technologies still mean we must find and produce materials that until recently few had mined or even heard of: rare earth elements, cobalt, lithium and many other key strategic materials.

China controls 60% of global rare earth production and processes 90% of it, including ore mined in the United States and other countries. It also controls the production and processing of cobalt and lithium, as well as the processed graphite for nearly all lithium-ion batteries used in mobile phones, electric vehicles and grid-scale backup batteries.

This means that the United States is dependent on this hostile country for many technologies; even the SEALs' equipment requires more than 20 minerals, at least 50% of which are imported, many of which come from China.

This unsustainable situation was highlighted in December when China severely restricted exports of antimony, gallium and germanium, particularly to the United States because they are critical for both civilian and military technologies. China could block more of these exports, using them as weapons of diplomacy, blackmail or war.

This scenario also makes no sense geologically. The plate tectonics and geological history of Alaska and the western states in particular have left the United States with numerous, often enormous, deposits of metals and minerals on the periodic table. Some of them are well known, while others have yet to be discovered, mapped or developed to meet changing, growing and increasingly strategic needs.

Even the Wilderness Act of 1964 recognized this. Article 2 allows exploration to collect information about mineral resources and requires “planned and regular” mineral surveys to be carried out, provided that these activities are carried out in a manner consistent with the protection of the “wilderness environment”. There is no “end” date for this work.

Article 3 allows mining rights and mineral leasing, exploration, drilling, roads, production, mechanized equipment and other necessary operations and facilities until midnight on December 31, 1983. area”, once mineral extraction ceases.

However, federal officials ignored this clear language and delayed, blocked or blocked all permit requests to conduct such work, including the mineral surveys and assessments that the government regularly conducts.

Rupert Cutler, assistant secretary of agriculture, made comments to me in 1978 that summed up their attitude then and now. “I don't think Congress should enact this rule,” he said. “But Congress did enact it, and you are obligated to follow the letter of the law when you take the oath of office, not the way you think it is should Already written. Dr. Cutler just walked away.

Successive generations of federal land managers—along with conservationists, courts, presidents, and legislators—have prohibited or severely restricted access to large tracts of wilderness, wilderness studies, wildlife refuges, antiquities laws, and even undesignated forests, deserts and grasslands for even minimally invasive exploration—regardless of critical state needs or clear legislative language.

National parks should be off limits. In most cases, these other lands shouldn't.

By 1994, when I helped prepare the last detailed analysis, mineral exploration and development had banned. It covers an area of ​​420 million acres, accounting for 19% of the United States; accounting for 66% of all federal/public lands.

Although the processes of plate tectonics, volcanic activity and other forces unleashed have created some of the most highly mineralized deposits in North America and the world, things are getting “gradually” worse.

State and local legislators, regulators, judges and activists treat nonfederal lands the same way. Even world-class deposits are often mined at depth for dubious reasons.

This cannot go on. These areas must be investigated and explored by government agencies and private companies. Important high-quality mineral deposits must be made available for mining under sound environmental principles to meet the needs of current and future generations.

Failure to do so violates the most basic principles of defence, national security, responsible government and the needs of society.

Alaska's Pebble mine contains an estimated 55 million tons of copper ore, 3.3 billion tons of molybdenum, and other metals needed for wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles and other technologies; however, Biden's EPA has not even submitted the mining plan The license application was rejected. Other world-class deposits of copper, cobalt, zinc, titanium, gold, silver, zinc and other metals in Alaska are also in limbo.

Biden officials have also revoked mining permits for the world's largest copper-nickel deposit in Minnesota, and President Biden himself has banned all mining activity in the state's 225,000-acre iron ore region.

While modern U.S. law and technology will ensure better environmental practices than elsewhere in the world, the fate of North Carolina's Kings Mountain lithium deposit, which could contain 5 million tons of lithium, is as uncertain as many other promising prospects.

Some concerns are certainly valid, some are exaggerated, and some reflect a determination to prevent mining anywhere in the United States, or even dedevelopment and deindustrialization of the United States and the West.

However, environmental and other considerations must always be balanced against the need for critical metals, minerals and energy to sustain modern societies and living standards. Making America great again—and responding to today's national security threats and needs—requires changes in federal and state perspectives, policies, and laws to recognize this. This is a matter of simple reality and common sense.

Paul Driessen is a senior policy analyst at the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and the author of books and articles on energy, environment, climate and human rights issues.

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