Senate Foreign Relations Chair: U.S. Shouldn’t Depend on China for Rare Minerals | Opinion

By Jim Risch – U.S. Senator, Idaho

The United States possesses vast reserves of critical minerals vital for our national security, industrial production, and everyday consumer goods. But stifling regulations and unnecessary red tape have made us reliant on foreign sources for minerals we can find at home—directly undermining our military readiness and economic security.

President Donald Trump‘s executive order on American mineral production provides a much-needed opportunity to reverse this troubling trajectory, better leverage our domestic natural resources, and achieve self-sufficiency.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. China has subsidized over $57 billion in recent decades to dominate the global supply of critical minerals, creating trade dependencies for the rest of the world. China’s recent decision to cut antimony supplies underscores the danger of this situation. Antimony is an indispensable ingredient in ammunition, fireproofing military equipment, nuclear systems, and much more. The U.S. has no domestic antimony source currently in production, despite having high-grade reserves waiting to be tapped. We have placed our security completely at the mercy of the Chinese government’s whims.

But fortunately, we don’t have to look far to course correct.

Projects like the Stibnite Gold Project in my home state of Idaho can fulfill our domestic needs. With a 148-million-pound reserve of antimony, it stands as the largest source of the element outside of Beijing’s control. However, the grueling road to production—currently slated to start in 2028, 18 long years after the project started—illustrates how U.S. policy has left our nation vulnerable.

Antimony is not a singular example. Idaho also contains large deposits of molybdenum, tungsten, and niobium, and possesses the only single source of cobalt in the Western Hemisphere—all critical minerals for military readiness and technological advancement. We have neglected our own resources, allowing ourselves to depend on Communist China for strategic minerals readily available in our own backyard.

Regaining control of our mineral supply chain is non-negotiable. We need to unleash U.S. businesses and let them regain their lead. The U.S. can take several immediate actions to restore American dominance in critical mineral production:

Cutting red tape. Overly restrictive policies and federal bureaucracies are stifling progress. It takes U.S. mining projects 29 years on average to move from exploration to operation. We need a streamlined, science-based approach that expedites domestic projects responsibly without sacrificing environmental excellence. President Trump’s latest executive order will kickstart this process by quickly permitting and prioritizing essential projects that have languished in limbo for decades.

Leveling the playing field. The president’s executive order rightly recognizes that for the U.S. to seriously compete against China, federal tools must be deployed to even the playing field for domestic mining projects. By utilizing our defense production and financing capabilities and making minerals a key priority for the National Energy Dominance Council, we will ensure domestic mineral production has the support it needs to compete on the world stage. Congress must work with the president to remove political roadblocks and implement innovative solutions that push back on global market interference.

Long-term planning. We have seen too many times that the domestic mining industry suffers when policies ping-pong back and forth under each new administration. The U.S. needs to deliver approaches with an eye for the future and implement long-term solutions that support the strategy President Trump has outlined.

Above all, we cannot allow the current momentum to fade into another period of inaction when the headlines shift. Without a robust domestic supply of critical minerals, our military, energy infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing sectors will remain at risk.

Fortunately, the Trump administration is keenly aware of just how dire the challenge has become, and the president has taken decisive action. Awareness alone will not secure our future. We, in Congress, must stand ready to support the vision President Trump has put forward to have a lasting impact. Now is the time to forge a comprehensive strategy that invests in domestic mining projects, revitalizes processing capacity, and restores the American industrial base as the envy of the world. We must make it clear that the United States is leading rather than following in the global race for critical minerals.

Establishing control over critical mineral supply chains is not just an economic priority, but a national security imperative. Building a more secure and prosperous future starts now, and the clock is ticking.

U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) is chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and a senior member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

From newsweek.com

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