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Modern Societies Require Minerals, and Mining - The Post & Email thepostemail.com/2019/07/14/mod…
The USA relies on foreign sources for 100% of 14 minerals considered to be critical for modern technologies and societies, and 50-96% for 19 other “critical” minerals; only two are in the 14-25% dependency range, an updated report from the US Department of the Interior cautions.
A Navy SEAL’s gear contains at least 23 of these minerals. A mobile phone has over a dozen. So do wind turbines and solar panels. Nearly all defense, aerospace, medical, transportation, communication, computer, energy and battery technologies require several of these 35 minerals.
Manufacturing and high-tech industries would grind to a halt without them. China is a dominant supplier for many of them, but other sources are also problematical, for different reasons.
Some of the most highly mineralized ore bodies in North America (or the world) are found in western US and Alaskan areas that have been deemed off-limits to mineral exploration and development, under multiple land use and environmental restrictions.
However, exploration and mining are banned or heavily restricted on the vast majority of those lands. In fact, when the last detailed analysis was conducted (see pages 12-15), 427 million acres were closed to mineral exploration and development.
That’s 59% of all federally owned or managed lands in the United States – an area equal to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana and Wyoming combined!
Our sole existing light rare earth mine is in Mountain Pass, Calif. Closed because compliance with US laws and regulations made it too expensive to compete on the world stage, it is now partly owned by a China-affiliated company, which sends the ores to China for processing!
In a crisis, would our government seize the mine and start processing its ores without regard to costs, acid leachate contamination or pollution from mine tailings and processing wastes, since we’d have no time to develop or implement environmentally acceptable processes?
It is time to recognize that environmental responsibility is woven into the fabric of today’s laws, regulations and minerals industry.
There is no legitimate reason for draconian Mining Law reformation, especially if those changes would ensure that we import more critical minerals from Congo and China.
