Posted on 05/17/2018 8:43:09 PM PDT by caww
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is listing 35 minerals used in aircraft, cellphones, and other important technologies as "vital" to national security in a move to wean the U.S. off foreign suppliers.
The list includes such valuable metals as aluminum and titanium, as well as uranium, helium, lithium, platinum, potash, and strontium. The materials are used in aircraft and other aerospace technologies. Lithium is used in batteries to power a wide range of products from cellphones to electric cars.
A final rule to be published Friday says the U.S. is "heavily reliant" on imports of the minerals. "This dependency of the United States on foreign sources creates a strategic vulnerability for both its economy and military to adverse foreign government action, natural disaster, and other events that can disrupt
President Trump directed Zinke to conduct a review of the nation's critical mineral assets and to create a strategy on how to handle vulnerabilities.
The final list begins phase two of Trump's executive order, with the Commerce Department developing a federal strategy to ensure supplies of the minerals remain reliable.
In February, Zinke listed the 35 minerals as critical to the nation's economy and national security as it took comments on the draft proposal. The list was
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
The same approach must be applied to electronic components - both active and passive components - and ICs.
Agreed.
Lol!
There is such a thing as recycling.
Also, if we use so little of the domestic stuff that the pipeline ossifies in disuse, we won’t be able to quickly get at it when needed.
Should lead to more streamlined mining on federal and other lands.
“Seems one of our brainiacs in the Federal government could have figured this out, say about 1960.”
They did, during WWII, and it remained a Federal Government and DoD function since then.
First the Clinton Administration, and then the Obama Administration took the teeth out of our Industrial base and strategic minerals programs, and then they shrunk and defunded them.
Sabotage.
If we depend on one country (e.g.China) for a critical input (e.g. rare earth minerals) which are essential for a broad category of industry (e.g. magnets for electric vehicles and railguns), then that country could cut us off during war (as China plans), or take over the businesses that use these materials, by denying them to competitors (as China has done).
Most of the US’s strategic mineral mines were converted to parks long ago (Clinton era) else areas were closed to exploration.
North Korea....
Let the multi-level chess winning of that sink in for a moment.
...uranium...
I agree.. its the same as that light sweet crude from the ME.. lets use their resources first.
I couldnt help smile when reading about zinke and his conservation of stategic elements.
Wasnt there a stocking number of foreign owned mines reported years ago.
There is a world wide shortage of potash. Old mines from New Mexico to Ethiopia are winding down.
With only 12 producing countries, the supply of potash has been limited by its general scarcity and influenced by the cost of opening new mining operations. A decade ago, raw materials analysts estimated that there would be a growing world-wide demand for potash. Simultaneously, both mining companies and industrial agriculture giants initiated a spirited search for the essential resource. At BMO Capital Markets 2009 Agriculture, Protein and Fertilizer Conference held in New York in 2009, speakers warned that global fertilizer production had to be increased dramatically to “avert a permanent food crisis and world instability.”
Off hand, I don’t think we produce enough titanium to be self sufficient even if we want to.
Uranium? Hillary Clinton is disappointed...President Hillary would sell those to terroristic nations...
Yeah, he’s been pretty good. Meanwhile Sessions and Mattis, whom I had such high hopes for, have been total flops.
Too late for Hillary’s uranium deal.
Too late for Hillary’s uranium deal.
“If we become a Banana Republic, “
We did for 8 long years and it hangs in the balance whether we can come out of it.
Local production of electronic components, ICs, VLSICs, electronic materials,etc is extremely critical for National Security. Especially the hi-tech and mid-tech ones…It takes dedicated equipment, trained eng/techs, skilled process support, etc. etc…. Yes,during ww2 unskilled civilians were trained in a matter of days to form rivets… But el-components (the very body of modern warfare) are not rivets… and the related production cannot be revived overnight…
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