Just getting reliable data around what is in the ground requires extensive drilling, meaning costly investment in heavy machinery and crews. The process is known in the industry as “greenfield exploration.” Zumwalt-Forbes said mining executives call greenfield exploration “the world’s worst casino.” For a material like lithium, said Abigail Hunter, a critical minerals expert at […]
Washington Post: U.S. agencies alarmed by China’s curbs on exports of rare-earth minerals
While the administration was aware that the metals posed a vulnerability, the U.S. government does not have many viable alternatives for industry leaders now panicked that their supplies will dry up within months. Companies are in many cases relying on reserves. And they are looking for ways to sidestep the Chinese rules by reprocessing and […]
Wall Street Journal: Sustainability Investors Eye Defense Stocks as Geopolitical Tensions Rise
The European Commission recently released a list of 47 mineral sites within the EU’s borders that it considers strategically important, part of a new assessment of the bloc’s mineral resources. When it first started the initiative in 2023, the messaging focused on minerals such as lithium and copper needed for the energy transition. Now, it […]
E&E News: Trump launches tariff probe of US mineral imports
Abigail Hunter, executive director of SAFE’s Center for Critical Minerals Strategy, said the use of Section 232 — as opposed to the reciprocal tariff approach that largely exempted minerals — reflects a “national security framing with potentially more durable trade implications.” “By going commodity-by-commodity the unique market dynamics and supply chain nuances across minerals should […]
Newsweek: The New Energy Security Threat Is the Coming Shortage of Critical Minerals
For decades, U.S. energy security was synonymous with oil. The trauma of the Middle Eastern oil embargo in the 1970s showed a generation of U.S. leaders that dependence on oil imports created a crippling vulnerability for the country’s economy and military. Today, the U.S. is producing and exporting more oil and gas than any country […]
