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Leading up to last Friday’s second Alaska Strategic and Critical Minerals Summit in Fairbanks, the Juneau Empire spoke with our very own Dan McGroarty, who had the honor to present alongside many distinguished members of Alaska’s State government and private sector representatives.

The Juneau Empire’s Russell Stigall has summarized their conversation in an article highlighting McGroarty’s emphasis on Alaska being the “single most important state when measured across the full range of hard rock metals,” and the state’s vast mineral potential. McGroarty also explained what constitutes a critical and strategic mineral – a definitional void that has proven problematic in the case of the U.S. government, where a cacophony of definitional approaches has gotten in the way of policy makers formulating a critical and strategic mineral strategy:

“A strategic mineral is used in advanced weapon system that does not have a second best metal to do the job — such as certain metals used in the making of smart bombs, McGroarty said.

Minerals are considered critical if there is a near-term, present or projected shortfall in the metal, McGroarty said. This can come from the geographic location of the mineral deposit or the fluctuations of the economy, he said. But minerals can become critical also if the U.S. is not comfortable sourcing, say, gold, tin or tungsten in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“If we shut those off successfully from our U.S. manufactures and users we may have created a critical metal out of tungsten,” McGroarty said.”

Unlike many in U.S. government, Alaska’s Parnell Administration understands the stakes, and has taken the lead in formulating a critical minerals strategy at the state level. Hopefully, last week’s conference has served to raise awareness of our critical mineral needs and domestic resource potential nationally – our strategic, national security and economic future depends on it.

American Resources Principal Daniel McGroarty will address the audience at the second annual Alaska Strategic and Critical Minerals summit in Fairbanks, Alaska, this Friday, November 30th, on the issue of critical minerals and national security.

Embedded in the context of the Parnell Administration’s five-part strategy to support the state’s mining industry, the day-long conference will feature progress reports by high level state officials on the state’s strategic minerals initiative, including results from field studies, questions relating to infrastructure and permitting, as well as university research. Representatives from the private sector will also provide updates on exploration, project development and the global supply chain. See the official program including a list of speakers here.

Home to numerous critical and strategic minerals, the State of Alaska – and with that the Parnell Administration – must be commended for taking the state-level lead in the formulation of a critical minerals strategy, a crucial effort we unfortunately have yet to see undertaken at the national level.

This week, the San Francisco Chronicle zeroed in on Rare Earths. Pointing to the “cultural necessity” of REEs – columnist Brooks Mencher calls them “as critical to the Age of Technology as cement and steel were to the Age of Industry” – the article discusses the relevance of Rare Earths against the backdrop of China’s (…) more

International supply woes for Antimony may see an easing going forward as an Italian mining project progresses. According to The Telegraph, Canada-based Androit Resources expects to get its permits for exploratory drilling in Southern Tuscany within weeks. As with virtually any mining project, there is local opposition to the project based on environmental concerns, but (…) more

Today is American Thanksgiving – a celebration of the blessings afforded by our forefathers as they overcame adversity in a new land, laboring to obtain from the resources around them the necessities of life:  food, shelter, and warmth against winter’s cold. Since that first winter, the bounty of Thanksgiving has become a symbol of the (…) more

The fact that manganese is not a well-known metal outside of the steel, aluminum and battery industry in North America is hardly surprising — after all there has been no domestic manganese production in several decades. Nonetheless, manganese is far from being an obscure metal with little importance – in fact there’s a good chance (…) more

Metal prices may be sluggish, but type in the key words “metal theft,” and any news search will yield at least ten stories from local papers on stolen copper wires, scrap metal, or parts from street lights or a/c units. Metal theft is far more than local petty crime, however, and its far-reaching implications have (…) more

Alaska Attorney General Daniel S. Sullivan gives an account of the state of the Parnell Administration’s five-part strategy to support the mining industry in a column for Petroleum News. This strategy, which was unveiled at the September 2011 Strategic and Critical Minerals Summit, comprises the following components: Undertaking a statewide assessment of strategic minerals; Providing (…) more

American Resources Principal Daniel McGroarty will speak alongside fellow American Resources expert and Manager for Industrial Minerals Data, Simon Moores, at Industrial Minerals’ 2nd Graphite Conference 2012 in early December. In light of its traditional uses, its importance for the new Li-ion technology, and the ostensibly endless potential applications for the “new super material graphene,” (…) more

Business Week’s Lydia Mulvany covers the U.S. Department of Defense’s recent efforts to “crack China’s monopoly on mining the most valuable rare earths.” In early October, we discussed the Pentagon’s studying of Canadian mining company Ucore Rare Metal Inc.’s REE-rich Bokan Mountain property in southeast Alaska, but according to a recent Business Week story, the (…) more