In testimony to a Republican House Committee On Natural Resources forum on critical minerals, SAFE United States must address at least three areas in the critical minerals sector in order to gain ground on China in the race for leadership in the electric vehicle (EV) and battery supply chains.
- The United States must establish a systematic approach to mapping its mineral resources by bolstering the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth MRI program, which works side-by-side with State Geologists to understand our resource potential.
- The United States should support domestic minerals processing and refining capacity by allowing the private sector to create a Rare Earths Processing Cooperative and incentivizing companies to build clean processing and refining facilities here in the United States.
- The United States must incentivize a market for goods produced at home and among our close allies and partners using blockchain to ensure the goods that go into our tech-driven world are sourced using the highest environmental and humanitarian standards.
Over the last several years, SAFE has grown increasingly concerned with China’s rising dominance over key parts of the automotive and battery manufacturing supply chain, particularly their control over vital midstream components, including processing and anode and cathode production. As SAFE outlined in its Commanding Heights of Global Transportation report, China exerts significant influence over these aspects of the supply chain and uses its power not only to cut off supplies, but also to lure foreign investment and advanced manufacturing to its shores. The United States must resist becoming just the ‘assemblers’ of next generation technology; we must act now to break China’s stranglehold on this emerging market.
