American resources

We’re excited to announce two new additions to our distinguished panel of experts:

Emily Coppel is a policy analyst from the American Security Project. She is also the author of “Rare Earth Metals and U.S. National Security,” a report outlining the national security risks of U.S. over-reliance on China as supplier of REEs.

Professor Patrick Taylor, Ph.D., P.E., FASM, is the Director of the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy at the Colorado School of Mines, where he specializes in the issues of mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, chemical metallurgy, recycling and waste minimization.

To learn more about their work, and our other panelists, visit our experts page.

A handful of countries situated near the top of the world are racing to firm up their territorial claims to untold amounts of oil, natural gas, gold, zinc, copper and other metals. A new piece from the U.K. Guardian highlights this renewed scramble for resource rights beneath the Arctic icecap.

I treated this story in 2007 as the dawning of a new “Cold War.” Read the full story here. [Subscription required.] Neither the geology nor the geo-politics has changed much in the past four years – unless we factor in the growing urgency as global resource demand collides with the glacial development pace of most new mining projects.

For the U.S., our Arctic claims come via Alaska – a.k.a. Seward’s Folly, and perhaps the best $7.2 million ever spent by the U.S. Government. Across a range of metals and minerals, expect Alaska – and by extension, our Arctic claims – to play a key role in resource supply in the 21st century. Forget the folly: let’s make that William Seward, futurist.

In a June 27 piece from Business Insider, Jim Powell, a technology and strategic metals analyst with Laurentian Bank Securities, attempts to clear up the confusion over the future supply and demand of critical metals. His interview with The Critical Metals Report highlights the struggle between China and the rest of the world over Rare [...]

If you’re looking for a good reason why the United States needs to develop its own mineral resources, especially rare earths, Nebraska University geologist Matt Joeckel hits the nail on the head: We could go without this stuff if we cared to go back to maybe a 1940s level of technology. Joeckel, who also works [...]

In a passionate delivery on the House of Representatives floor, California Congressman Jeff Denham delivered a message about natural resources and American jobs. In his closing, Denham said, “We won’t solve CA’s energy problems or the nation’s job issue without addressing our natural resources.” Watch the short video below to hear his full plea to [...]

In less than two minutes, this short, but informative, video clip on the BBC’s website does a great job of getting to the heart of the rare earths crunch that puts the U.S. at the mercy of China. Ending our dangerously high degree of resource dependency is possible, but it all boils down to the question [...]

Statistics show that rare earths reserves in China are down to 27 million tons and, at current production rates, may be exhausted as early as 2025. This data underscores the urgency of the rare earths crunch we have been discussing on this blog in recent weeks.  Having produced rare earths at rates exceeding 100,000 tons [...]

The election victory of leftist Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala in this week’s runoff election has instilled fears of higher taxes and new restrictive policies in the mining sector.  Peru is a leading producer of precious metals, and the U.S. relies heavily on Peruvian imports of zinc, tin, gold, copper, and silver. (To see exactly [...]

ARPN expert Lisa Reisman has a very insightful post on her website “MetalMinerTM” this week. Adding her own commentary, Reisman discusses rare earth and specialty metals lobbyist Jeff Green’s take on the current public policy debate regarding rare earth metals and critical minerals, as well as related legislation in pending in Congress.  Below is an [...]

Friends of the American Resource Policy Network are aware that, in an effort to secure access to the continent’s natural resources, China’s state-backed mining companies have been investing heavily in Africa (Chinese foreign direct investment in Zambia, for example, has grown by 1,000% since 2001.) According to the Associated Press, China is now expanding its [...]