Having honored those who have served our country on Memorial Day yesterday, this week may be an appropriate time to note that our military servicemen and –women could not fulfill their mission to protect the homeland and project American power around the globe as effectively as they do if it wasn’t for a broad range of critical metals and minerals. These non-fuel materials are essential not only to our commercial manufacturing base and our aspirations to transition to a green-energy economy, but also to advanced weapons systems and other military applications, and are thus a matter of national security.

While given that, one would expect that formulating a coherent national mineral strategy to ensure such access would be a public policy imperative, a new study by the American Resources Policy Network finds that this, unfortunately, is not the case.

The study, to be formally released at the The Strategic Minerals Conference 2012, taking place on June 6, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, attempts to give a snapshot of the federal government’s approach to the United States’ mineral supply needs by reviewing recent government literature on the issue. The report will be available at www.americanresources.org after the conference.

The key questions guiding our research for the report -

1. Is there a consensus on which metals or minerals are “critical and/or strategic?”
2. What is our supply risk or import exposure (drawing on USGS data)?
3. How do we square private market activity with public policy to reduce resource dependency where possible and ensure surety of supply?

- will also be taken up and elaborated upon by a formidable lineup of speakers and panelists at the June 6th event.

For more information including related video from some of the conference participants, and an updated agenda as the event date draws closer visit www.strategicmineralsconference.com.