Pushing to counter Chinese dominance of critical minerals, a bipartisan group of senators recently introduced the Critical Minerals Security Act to shore up what they saw as information gaps, evaluate the global supply chain and pull domestic industry away from Chinese industry.
The Critical Minerals Security Act of 2024 was introduced by U.S. Sens. Todd Young (R-IN), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mark Warner (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), James Lankford (R-OK), and John Hickenlooper (D-CO). As written, it would require federal agencies to report to Congress on all critical mineral and rare earth element resources worldwide, as well as their owners, within one year of the bill’s enactment and every two years from then onward. It would also provide a means for U.S. companies to divest critical minerals operations in foreign countries and instead focus on a means for sharing intellectual property related to clean mining and processing technologies with U.S. allies and partners.
“The Chinese Communist Party is aggressively attempting to monopolize critical mineral resources, and the United States urgently needs to diversify our supply chain and strengthen ties with allies,” Young said. “Our legislation would respond to China’s actions by better tracking global mineral reserves and devising a national strategy for advancing mining technologies and international cooperation.”
Which resources are controlled by the United States, its allies or foreign entities of concern, which mines are extracting critical minerals, ways to get the United States access to these minerals and cases in which U.S. enemies have railroaded companies into divesting stock in mining or processing operations are among the many items the U.S. Secretary of the Interior would need to report on, if passed.
“This bill is an important step in ensuring that the U.S. government, alongside our allies, identifies secure sources of critical minerals and supports domestic industry in developing the capacity to mine, refine, and process these minerals at home and in partner countries abroad,” Warner said. “I am committed to ensuring the U.S. has a resilient supply chain for critical minerals that are essential components for technologies critical to our national security, to combat China’s continued attempts to monopolize control of these minerals.”
The bill would also push the Secretary of the Interior to develop a strategy of collaboration with U.S. allies and partners to advance clean mining, refining, separation and processing technologies, as well as a method for sharing intellectual property resulting from the development of those technologies.