Blog

In the rush to act on must-pass legislation in the waning days of the 113th Congress, it’s possible for ARPN followers to have some hope that sound resource policy is still possible in Washington. Case in point: the carefully-crafted federal land exchange package that is part of the National Defense Authorization Act, the must-pass bill that sets in place Pentagon policies and defense funding for the year ahead.

Analyzing breaking legislation is a tricky business, and some have characterized the land exchange package as a federal land grab, appropriating even more acres into the already-massive federal wilderness inventory. And if that’s all there was to the package, there would be little reason to support it.

But that’s not the full story. The new lands added to the federal wilderness register are part of a balanced agreement that frees up current federal lands for resource development — providing new and needed domestic sources of oil, natural gas, coal, timber and key metals like copper.

As such, the land package is an opportunity to break the logjam that has characterized much of the 113th Congress, and to do so in a way that encourages the development of key materials critical to a revival of America’s manufacturing might.

Including such a package in the NDAA is well within the purview of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, as land exchanges have been a fixture in NDAA’s for at least 25 years, across both Republican and Democratic presidencies.

And in the case of copper, where the U.S. currently imports 600,000 metric tons a year, the exchange can facilitate a new source of domestic supply sufficient to nearly close the copper gap. That’s a legitimate national security objective, as the lack of copper and two of its by-product metals – molybdenum and tellurium – have, as the National Defense Stockpile Requirements Report notes, already caused significant defense weapons system delays.

Nor is this an example of last-minute special interest legislation being tossed into a must-pass bill. Senator Murkowski and Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle have been crafting this compromise for the better part of two years. This isn’t a last-minute ornament being hung on the Congressional Christmas Tree; the NDAA is the culmination of this process.

The NDAA land exchange package is a solid example of sound policy — a balanced package with bipartisan support that will generate jobs and GDP while advancing critical national security interests.

ARPN followers are well aware of the connection between Made in America and Mined in America. Today, the National Mining Association (NMA) released a comprehensive new report, documenting in detail the importance of mined materials to America’s manufacturing resurgence – or lack thereof.

The NMA report notes what it terms

“…a gross structural mismatch between domestic mineral supply and demand. Although the United States is a major mining country, it enjoys a much higher global ranking as a manufacturer than it does as a miner.”

The mismatch has emerged in less than a generation:

“In 1990, the United States was the world’s largest producer of metallic and industrial minerals. By 2013, the country had fallen to seventh place in the global ranking, with output accounting for less than 5 percent of the value of global mined output. China, Australia, Brazil, Russia, Chile and South Africa all ranked ahead of the United States.”

In a world where there is more and more demand for metals and minerals, the U.S. has done less and less mining, proportionate to other mining nations. Consider these data-points from the NMA study:

• Since 2000, mining of iron ore globally has increased 101%. U.S. iron ore production has decreased by 19%.
• Silver production worldwide is up 41%; in the U.S. it is down 45%.
• Global copper production is up 36%; in the U.S., it is down 15%.
• Global zinc production is up 55%, but down in the U.S. by 11%.

What’s changed in the United States to account for this resource reversal? After all, NMA notes there is much to commend U.S. mineral extraction:

“Relative to their global peers, miners in the United States are highly efficient, often exemplifying best practices with regard to productivity, sustainability and safety. The United States remains highly prospective, from a geological point of view, with abundant, diverse mineral resources of high quality.”

And yet,

“While the country’s mining sector is ideally positioned to support manufacturers’ need for greater sustainability and shorter supply chains in the production process, an outdated, inefficient permitting system presents a barrier to American companies’ access to the minerals they need and thus to economic competitiveness.”

“As a consequence of its inefficient permitting system, it takes on average seven to ten years to secure the permits needed to commence operations. To put that into perspective, in Canada and Australia, countries with similarly stringent environmental regulations, the waiting period is two years.”

For ARPN followers interested in the link between mining and manufacturing, the new NMA report LINK is required reading. America’s economic competitiveness hangs in the balance.

ARPN followers well understand that a host of metals and minerals are key to the green-tech transition – rare earths like neodymium and mainstay metals like copper for wind turbines, Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenium for the CIGS solar panel technology. The list is long. Yet all too often, Green advocates take a reflexively oppositional stance towards all-things-mining. ARPN (…) more

ARPN readers know that one of the core tenets of the Resource Wars thesis is that the market for strategic and critical metals is never immune to government interventions. Witness today’s Bloomberg report: “China Said to Add 10,000 Tons to Rare Earths Stockpiles.” Bloomberg reports: “China may stockpile more medium-to-heavy rare earths this year such (…) more

ARPN’s Dan McGroarty reports a worrisome development in the saga of EPA’s unprecedented use of pre-emptive veto power to stop Alaska’s proposed Pebble Mine even before a mine plan is presented for review: Anti-mining activists are urging EPA to dust off its veto pen again. And again. Noting a common thread between new pushes for (…) more

That’s the title of this Forbes.com piece co-authored by ARPN’s Dan McGroarty and Behre Dolbear CEO Karr McCurdy. ARPN readers know Behre’s “Where Not to Mine” report as the annual review that regularly shows the U.S. leading the mining world in the one category where being first is being last: the time it takes to (…) more

ARPN followers are well-versed on the dangers of foreign resource dependency – a concern highlighted by Tesla Motors’ announcement earlier this year that the EV manufacturer will build a massive Giga-Factory in the American Southwest, with the goal of doubling global EV battery output by 2020. As ARPN’ers know, the next question is: Where will (…) more

The following op-ed by American Resources Principal Dan McGroarty was published in the Wall Street Journal on January 3, 2014. The original text can be found here. How the EPA Sticks Miners With a Motherlode of Regulation The years-long wait for mining permits in the U.S. is the worst in the world. On Dec. 13, (…) more

The graphite, lithium and cobalt industries are set for major demand surges as Tesla Motors prepares to break ground on its super-battery plant, the Gigafactory, next month. The high-end EV manufacturer is looking to double the world’s battery output as it seeks to bring the production cost of battery packs down in a bid to (…) more

ARPN readers know that modern mining is a tech-intensive affair. For an over-the-horizon report on a technology that may revolutionize resource recovery, take a look at this note by ARPN Experts Chris and Michael Berry, on path-breaking Plasma Torch technology that “has the potential to increase metal extraction by 5 to 100 times according to (…) more