The government ramped up its focus on U.S. independence in the supply of critical minerals for electric vehicle and clean energy battery production—as a Senate committee hearing on March 31 revealed an acute need to address domestic supply vulnerabilities and President Joe Biden authorized use of the Defense Production Act to expand sources of materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt.

The act allows the president to respond to a national emergency by requiring private companies to prioritize orders from the federal government. It's intended to reduce mineral imports from Russia, China and other “unreliable foreign sources” in furthering the U.S. clean energy transition, according to a White House fact sheet.

The act would help companies gain government funding for feasibility studies on projects to develop new mineral sources. It would also help firms upgrade and expand facilities to “secure the supply of such materials through environmentally responsible domestic mining and processing; recycling and reuse; and recovery from unconventional and secondary sources, such as mine waste,” the White House said.

拜登公告是降低能源价格的广泛行动的一部分，包括自1977年创建以来战略石油储备中最大的发行。

经济研究公司Wood-Mckenzie的顾问Jiayue Zheng告诉S＆P Global，锂离子电池供应在2022年无法满足需求，部分原因是原材料价格上涨。他说：“在2022年，俄罗斯入侵乌克兰的价格已经在2022年上涨，受到了大流行引起的供应链限制的压力，需求的飙升和新的采矿项目的不足。”新利18备用网址- 标准普尔全球已经说过，今年从2020年的水平开始三倍，可以随着石油和天然气价格上涨而进一步加速。

“没有总统的行动,U。S. industry cannot reasonably be expected to provide the capability for these needed industrial resources, materials or critical technology items in a timely manner,” Biden said.

‘At a Crossroads’

The president’s announcement followed a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on domestic critical mineral supply chain vulnerability,also on March 31。说:“我们现在处在一个十字路口主席乔·Manchin (D.W. Va). Senators and the four-person expert panel also focused on the need to integrate “radical improvements” in technology into traditional mining and manufacturing processes.

The U.S. relies on foreign sources for many raw and processed mineral materials, Steven Fortier, director of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Minerals Information Center, told the committee. In 2021, the nation was 100% import-reliant for 17 mineral commodities and at least 50% import-reliant for 30 others, he said.

一位小组见证人对美国项目的不可预测的监管氛围表示关注。新利18备用网址矿业公司Twin Metals Minnesota的首席监管官Julie Padilla表示，NEPA对我的和加工工厂的开发审查“现在是基于政治而不是科学的”。

She said the company recently laid off one-third of its contractor workforce due to regulatory issues for a planned $1.7-billion underground mine near Ely in Northeast Minnesota. It contains the largest known undeveloped copper-nickel deposit in the world, according to Padilla. The region contains 95% of known U.S. nickel resources, 88% of its cobalt, 75% of its platinum group metals and about one-third of copper supply.

But after 10 years and $550 million in exploration and mine design, she said, the Twin Metals Minnesota project could be at risk, with a proposed U.S. Forest Service decision earlier this year to withdraw hundreds of thousands of acres of federal lands from mining development, which could result in a 20-year mining ban in the area. Twin Metals is owned by Chile-based Antofagasta plc, one of the top ten global copper producers.

明尼苏达州矿山的利弊

该项目受到环境拥护者的反对，一名森林服务官员指出一月听证会对潜在影响“未解之谜”a state wilderness area, including contamination from acid mine drainage. An Obama administration moratorium on the project was reversed by the Trump administration in 2019. But project supporters, including a carpenters’ union local, said the mine's environmental review and permitting process should still proceed.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to arbitrarily preempt the ability for people to design a project, to design a safe and modern approach to utilizing those minerals, because of a presumption of harm,” Doug Connell, a vice president at Barr Engineering, testified at the hearing, according to a Minnesota Public Radio report.

“It’s a challenge for every project,” said Padilla, noting that the average time to permit a new mine in the U.S. is up to 16 years, while in Canada, which also has strong environmental standards, the time frame is two to three years.

“This is an engineering problem. It’s a solvable problem,” said committee member Sen. Angus King, a Maine-based independent, noting that streamlined permitting does not mean lowering standards. “We need to produce more and protect our resources.”

The mining and processing of domestic resources must focus on the entire supply chain, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who in early March introduced the American Energy Development and Growth Enhancement Act to expand critical minerals mining, processing and manufacturing. “It is past time for the United States to become a competitive producer of critical minerals and wean itself off of both foreign oil and gas imports,” he said.

介绍了“无俄罗斯”法案

While uranium was recently dropped as a critical mineral, the Russian incursion has refocused debate on whether it should return to the list, with imports from Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan now comprising nearly half of the U.S. supply used as nuclear fuel. But there is equal concern over environmental risks of expanded uranium production in the U.S.

怀俄明州的参议员，包括委员会成员约翰·巴拉索（John Barrasso），试图加快成立国家铀保护区。他和州共和党同胞辛西娅·鲁米斯（Cynthia Loomis）和另外两名鲁米斯（Cynthia Loomis）于3月31日推出了全国性的恢复美国铀供应服务的机会，或者没有俄罗斯法案。这将要求美国能源部“立即开始执行”储备金的发展，这使该机构在十年内为150亿美元提供了这样做，并开始建立国内铀供应链。巴拉索说：“我们不能依靠我们在家中拥有的燃料的对手。”

Last year’s federal spending bill included $75 million for DOE to establish the reserve, which would contain only U.S. uranium.

美国最大的美国铀勘探，采矿和加工公司，美国铀生产商总裁Scott Melbye告诉参议院委员会，几乎没有铀在国内生产。他呼吁振兴美国采矿和富集处理。新利18备用

Because of the Ukraine War, Kazakhstan has had its production and export disrupted, impacting the global market and spiking commodity prices, according to a March 31 Seeking Alpha report. “The federal government is eager to cultivate [U.S.] uranium production to insulate existing and future nuclear power plants from global events that could restrict supply,” it said.

寻求Alpha的Alpha说，铀能源公司正在迅速建立其生产能力，“大量投资”开发了四个新设施，其中一个在亚利桑那州，一个在科罗拉多州，两名在巴拉圭。市场报告说：“一旦运营，[公司]将拥有世界上最大的铀生产能力之一。”

DOE also must move with greater urgency to establish domestic production of HALEU (High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium) which will power the next generation of advanced nuclear power facilities, Melbye said.

In November 2021, DOE announced a $2-billion commitment to a new HALEU-powered reactor in Wyoming, set to come online in 2028. “More projects will follow and advanced nuclear is going to be key to achieving clean energy goals,” Melbye said, adding that he supports a ban on all uranium imports from Russia, the only current HALEU supplier.

But Shannon Anderson, staff attorney for the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a Wyoming landowners’ group, is concerned about uranium mining expansion impacts on tribal lands and protected environments, she told the Casper, Wyo., Star-Tribune.

国内供应链

Manchin noted that critical minerals also “can be produced from waste,” referring to research at West Virginia University that indicates the materials can be extracted from acid mine drainage. That could expedite the domestic supply and processing industry, said Paul F. Ziemkiewicz, managing director of the university’s water research institute.

“While conventional mines might require 5 to 10 years and hundreds of millions of dollars for exploration, permitting and infrastructure development,” acid mine drainage extraction could be initiated almost immediately at operating, already permitted sites, Ziemkiewicz said. A pilot plant would be the next step to test and develop technology.

In a statement, North America’s Building Trades Union President Sean McGarvey said the push will “lead us to a cleaner energy economy while ensuring a strong domestic supply chain.”