Posted on 12/15/2025 8:05:11 PM PST by Red Badger
Korea Zinc announced on Monday a $7.4 billion smelter project in Tennessee that will be backed by the U.S. government and which will lessen our reliance on China for critical minerals used in defense systems, electronics, and so much more that powers our modern world.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick took to X to laud the news:
The tweet continues:
Today, we announced a major investment with Korea Zinc to build a state-of-the-art critical minerals smelter and processing facility in Tennessee that will produce 540,000 tons per year of essential materials right here in America.
He continued, listing a range of exotic (to me, anyway) minerals like gallium, germanium, and antimony that are used in “defense systems, semiconductors, AI, quantum computing, autos, data centers, and advanced manufacturing.”
It’s another win for President Trump, the secretary wrote:
This is exactly how we win: build here, secure our supply chains, create great jobs, and keep America the world’s industrial and technological leader. Congratulations to President Trump on delivering another massive win for the United States!
Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) called it a victory for his state and a “geostrategic” win for the country:
This project will expand the United States’ capacity to produce the minerals that power our advanced industries and defense capabilities, strengthening national security while delivering high-paying jobs for hundreds of Tennessee families.
The South Korea-based Korea Zinc, the world’s largest zinc smelting company, surged in trading Monday with its stock at one point shooting up over 26 percent. The new venture will be controlled by the United States and unnamed strategic investors. The plan is for Korea Zinc to purchase Nyrstar Zinc in Clarksville and build new facilities, including the company’s U.S. headquarters and a $6.6 billion smelter that is expected to produce 420 jobs in Montgomery County.
President Trump has focused on critical minerals in his second term for a very simple reason: we are way too reliant on the Chinese Communist Party for them. If our relations go south and they cut off our supply, we’re in a world of hurt, as production from everything from cars to fighter jets will be at risk. In fact, China has already flexed its muscles, slapping on export controls in October of 2024 and adding more restrictions on minerals in early November of this year in retaliation for the U.S.’s semiconductor export restrictions. They have since rolled back many of those constraints after negotiations with the Trump administration, but they gave us a preview of what they could do if relations really sour.
Trump is smart to focus on reducing our reliance on other countries in both the energy and minerals arenas. Let’s have both Made in America.
Correction 12/15/2025 6:20 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to point out that not all the metals are considered “rare earth minerals”; some are quite abundant but hard to extract in the U.S. due to environmental regulations and labor costs.
Self sufficiency when it comes to critical materials is important. This is a good development.
neodymium not named. Not good.
MP Materials got $1 billion to produce neodymium . . . 50+ metric tons per year.
The US imported 7500 metric tons of neodymium from China last year.
Question to Grok AI: Does the US and Canada have neodymium deposits?
Grok: Yes, both the United States and Canada have significant neodymium deposits, as neodymium is a key rare earth element (REE) commonly found in REE ore bodies alongside elements like praseodymium, cerium, and lanthanum.
So it’s here, we just don’t use it.
But no Unobtainium?
And the ability to use tariffs will keep foreign countries from dropping their prices just long enough to destory our new industries. Trump’s not gonna let China corner anymore markets.
Is this where the people died in the hurricane and were displaced?
And why Korea zinc? no American companies around to do this?
No, that was on the far east end of the state, near the Carolinas and Georgia.
This is in the middle of the state NW of Nashville...........
I smelter, and the aroma was enticing...
Neodymium is not particularly rare. But the refining process is very complex and very time consuming. The effort to go from a shovel of dirt to a fully configured neodymium magnet is enormous.
I was just looking at MP Materials suddenly sophisticated website since they got the $1 billion dollar contract. But the sub page for neodymium magnets talks about their development of the process and the facility and how they have ambitions to be able to produce 50 plus metric tons per year.
The US imported 7500 metric tons of magnets last year. We are 10 years away from domestic sufficiency
It is now or never. Fortunately President Trump is at the helm. It will not be easy for America to maintain the number one position in the face of internal and external opposition, but at least with President Trump there is a real chance. In life, often one only needs a real chance to win. He is the president for this time.
This is a positive step. Like with computer chips we are finally starting to address critical gaps that were allowed to open in our supply chain by the idiotic Dubya and Obama administrations. But this is only a step. We need to open more rare earth mines, build more processing facilities and expand domestic computer chip production.
We also need to coordinate with Allies so that we can pool our resources to reduce dependence on China.
Environmental concerned judge will be halting this project soon.
So it’s here, we just don’t use it.
—
Correction:
In the US we are not allowed to mine it since Bil Clinton halted it back when.
Ross Perot was right.................except there was no ‘giant sucking sound’................
“...And why Korea zinc? no American companies around to do this?...”
Well, since ya asked: yes. Yes, there is. But the foreign, under the table, political bribe money was proably just waaaaayyy too much to pass up....spit.
ALWAYS follow the money trail when it comes to these government contracts....they’re usually the sleeziest of the sleazy and corrupt to their core. Even politiicans gotta get rich somehow...spit, again.
It started with Nixon's bright idea to open trade with China, who took full advantage bit by bit as Trump pointed out in 2015-16, not only with undercutting our manufacturing costs due to their near-poverty labor conditions, but also with currency manipulation.
It was especially critical during the Plandemic to realize just how many of our pharmaceutical and medical supplies, and even lab processing, was being done by China—who, by the way, has been amassing DNA samples of individual Americans, and experimenting with a biologic pandemic that would be deadlier to white people than Chinese.
If your doctor or HMO gave you a dandy stool sample kit (made in China) to check for bowel cancer, the sample and your DNA info may have also been collected by China. The wonders of 24/7/365 digital information sharing. The Biden DOJ passed a set of regulations to try to limit the flow of info to China, but it had exemptions for pharmaceutical data, among other things.
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