Posted on 03/10/2022 9:43:17 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The U.S. aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 as part of its commitment to tackling climate change, but might be lacking the critical minerals needed to achieve its goals.
The American green economy will rely on renewable sources of energy like wind and solar, along with the electrification of transportation. However, local production of the raw materials necessary to produce these technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles, is lacking. Understandably, this has raised concerns in Washington.
In the graphic below, based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti lists all of the minerals that the government has deemed critical to both the economic and national security of the United States.
A critical mineral is defined as a non-fuel material considered vital for the economic well-being of the world’s major and emerging economies, whose supply may be at risk. This can be due to geological scarcity, geopolitical issues, trade policy, or other factors.
In 2018, the U.S. Department of the Interior released a list of 35 critical minerals. The new list, released in February 2022, contains 15 more commodities.
Much of the increase in the new list is the result of splitting the rare earth elements and platinum group elements into individual entries rather than including them as “mineral groups.” In addition, the 2022 list of critical minerals adds nickel and zinc to the list while removing helium, potash, rhenium, and strontium.
The challenge for the U.S. is that the local production of these raw materials is extremely limited.
For instance, in 2021 there was only one operating nickel mine in the country, the Eagle mine in Michigan. The facility ships its concentrates abroad for refining and is scheduled to close in 2025. Likewise, the country only hosted one lithium mine, the Silver Peak Mine in Nevada.
At the same time, most of the country’s supply of critical minerals depends on countries that have historically competed with America.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, China is the single largest supply source of mineral commodities for the United States.
Cesium, a critical metal used in a wide range of manufacturing, is one example. There are only three pegmatite mines in the world that can produce cesium, and all were controlled by Chinese companies in 2021.
Furthermore, China refines nearly 90% of the world’s rare earths. Despite the name, these elements are abundant on the Earth’s crust and make up the majority of listed critical minerals. They are essential for a variety of products like EVs, advanced ceramics, computers, smartphones, wind turbines, monitors, and fiber optics.
After China, the next largest source of mineral commodities to the United States has been Canada, which provided the United States with 16 different elements in 2021.
As the world’s clean energy transitions gather pace, demand for critical minerals is expected to grow quickly.
According to the International Energy Association, the rise of low-carbon power generation is projected to triple mineral demand from this sector by 2040.
The shift to a sustainable economy is important, and consequently, securing the critical minerals necessary for it is just as vital.
In WW2 we initially had no sources for rubber. It didn’t take TOO long to come up with a substitute, which we still use today.
But we also lost out source of hemp, after the Japanese took the Philippines. My father worked in a factory that made a substitute rope from sisal fiber. Raw, nasty stuff that was weaker and tore at the hands of sailors.
More to the point, after the Allies took Morocco, Germany had no source for nickel. One result was that the valves in their aero engines lasted only a few dozen hours before they had to be replaced. Ditto the turbine blades in their otherwise advanced jet engines. This made a huge difference when it came to winning the air war in Europe.
We have plenty of most of these available in country. The greenie lefties haven’t been letting us mine them.
bkmk
Putin has been busy.
Russia Collusion exposed in 2018: Congressional report detailed ‘Russian Attempts to Influence’ & Fund Environmental Groups to Oppose Fracking in Europe & U.S.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4043951/posts
Not just fracking - ANY sort of strategic minerals...
And the Obama/Biden administration have done “what” to solve this critical problem?
Correct, yup.
“In WW2 we initially had no sources for rubber. It didn’t take TOO long to come up with a substitute, which we still use today.”
Maybe we have stuff now, but not in one of the videos that I saw years ago. Back then, they were trying to recycle rubber, trying to reduce reliance on rubber, and trying to produce artificial rubber. But nothing was effective and we were damn lucky to get some plantations in Asia early in the war.
...and rubber is likely easier to substitute than virtually anything on that list.
One thing we could do to increase the supply of those materials for truly critical purposes is to stop wasting them on worse than worthless uses like wind farms, solar panels and electric cars.
“One thing we could do to increase the supply of those materials for truly critical purposes is to stop wasting them on worse than worthless uses like wind farms, solar panels and electric cars.”
Good point, at least for some of them. We probably have enough for 10 years of military production, on US soil, just Teslas.
This illustrates one of the reasons why it would be suicidally stupid for any technologically advanced country to adopt the Libertarian’s anti-interventionist platform plank. Because all resources, including many that are strategically essential, are not evenly distributed around the planet (yes, even geology is racist).
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