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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 excerpt, but the whole piece is well worth a read in its entirety.

At the end of the day, according to Green, US public policy should focus on only two initiatives:

1. Define what we are short of
2. Determine how we get it

It’s hard to argue with that. But with some estimates of the time needed to rebuild a rare-earth supply chain of 15 years, and a minimum of two years to create magnet facilities for sintered neodymium iron boron permanent magnets, Congress had better start acting soon.

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 global pursuit of commodities to Latin America, where Chinese loans and investments “in return for a guaranteed flow of commodities” totaled more than $15 billion in 2010 alone.

While its Latin American “loans-for-access” approach appears to focus, at least for now, primarily on oil, the geopolitics of China’s strategic cash infusions, which have made it the third biggest investment source for Latin America, should not be dismissed.

With China ready to “prospect” for natural resources on our doorstep, U.S. policy makers’ current efforts to reassess our mineral resource policies are not only welcome developments, they are vital for our continued economic growth, and national security.

 

Our expert, Dan McGroarty is on-hand at the Metals for Energy and Environment conference in Las Vegas. While there, he’s been live-tweeting some of the action. Check out those updates here. And below, he provides a thorough re-cap of “Day 1″ on the front lines: Day one included a full slate of informative presentations, but [...]

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Globe Metals and Mining has discovered significant rare earths deposits at its exploration site Mount Muambe in Mozambique. This positive exploration result will likely further strengthen China’s quasi-monopoly position when it comes to rare earths, as the Chinese state-owned East China Minerals Exploration and Development Bureau only two months [...]

According to Bloomberg, the Saudi Railway Organization has successfully tested a newly-built railway line connecting phosphate and bauxite mines in the North of Saudi Arabia, operated by Saudi Arabian Mining, with the Persian Gulf. A country well aware of the importance of natural resources as a wealth-driving factor – after all it is the world’s [...]

The House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held an oversight hearing this morning to address the topic of “domestic minerals supplies and demands in a time of foreign supply disruption.” Our very own Dan McGroarty was part of the panel of rare earths experts, and his testimony provided a bounty of [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 9) – The American Resources Policy Network (ARPN) today announced its formation as a panel of mining policy experts and thought leaders dedicated to promoting the exploration and development of U.S. domestic metal and mineral resources…[Read more]