Posted on 04/21/2025 8:57:15 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
President Donald Trump's tariffs on China have raised questions about the issue of rare earth minerals and their processing, but Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday that part of the dilemma lies in the "war on mining" that was waged under the administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
"If you go back to the Obama/Biden administrations, we are in a war on mining in this country for anything, not just rare earth minerals," Burgum told "Fox News Sunday." "It's not just 'drill, baby, drill,' but it's 'map, baby, map.' We've got these materials in our country, so [it's also] 'mine, baby, mine.'"
He noted that Trump will be announcing a resolution on copper mining soon. "This has been a 30-year saga in terms of getting permitting," said Burgum. "In three months, President Trump has got this rolling again. Copper is key for electronics. It's key for military uses."
Trump also wisely declared an energy emergency on the first day of his presidency, the secretary said.
"This includes critical minerals ... there have been only two mining projects ever that have been put under an authority called FAST-41," said Burgum. "President Trump added 10 more mining projects to that list this week. All of these things will help us in the competition against China."
Meanwhile, coal production is also vital to the plans for energy, said Burgum.
"We have in America the cleanest coal production in the world," he said. "There is a coal plant that has survived the war on coal for the last 20 years."
Coal has many uses, including thermal coal for electricity, metallurgical coal for steelmaking, and other critical minerals.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
This is the first comment about anything I’ve heard from Interior Sec. Doug Burgum since he got that position.
He’s the type who does his job with little fanfare, so unlike most people in such high positions would do.
He’s already double rich, and is focused on serving the people, so it seems. That’s a good thing.
I live in Libby, MT. Hecla Mining is trying to develop a huge copper and silver deposit in the Cabinet Mountains near here. Naturally, the commiecrats are fighting this all the way. F them.
Its a real shame the commies fighting it there don’t wind up lost in the mountains and never found. Where’s sasquatch when you need him?
Earth First ! We’ll mine the other planets later !
The correct question about all things mining is NOT . . . is it good for the environment? It’s also not “when can we get started producing?”
The correct question is, after 100s of years of mining . . .
Suppose there is nothing left?
but Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday that part of the dilemma lies in the “war on mining” that was waged under the administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
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Part of the War on Natural Resource Harvesters begun by Noxious Nixon and continued by every President since then, not just 0bama and Biden.
That is a really stupid and unrealistic attitude. Mine it first and after that a lot of it can be recycled, especially copper.
Grizzlies need to eat, especially in the Spring.
Suppose it was already mined. I meant oil, not copper. Not a lot of crude oil recycling going on. As in none.
I worked in the Alaska oil patch for 26 years which made me a believer in the abiotic theory of oil formation. IOW we aren’t likely to run out of oil anytime soon.
You may be sure that there will always be something left. The vast majority of the earth's crust remains unexplored.
Nod. It doesn’t really matter how it is formed.
It does matter how long it takes.
The dirty little secret of oil is there are complete departments at the major services companies like Halliburton and Schlumberger called Cap & Abandon. Wells, and thus fields, do go empty. That abiotic process did not refill them. They got capped and abandoned.
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