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In his latest column for RealClearWorld, American Resources principal Daniel McGroarty takes exception to the Department of Defense’s assessment of the role of rare earths in the defense supply chain. In its (long-overdue) report on the issue, the agency shrugged off concerns, concluding that there is no reason to be worried about potential vulnerabilities due to our reliance on foreign – and to a disproportionately high degree Chinese – rare earth elements imports.

This position is clearly at odds with the assessments of policy experts on the outside – but even defense analysts within the government, such as CRS defense specialist Valerie Bailey Grasso, find issue with DoD’s dismissal of a matter that could well threaten our national security and economic wellbeing.

The failure of U.S. government to speak with one voice on the issue of critical minerals and metals – a prerequisite to formulating a coherent mineral strategy that will allow us to remain competitive and allow our military to effectively do its job – will also be the topic of a forthcoming American Resources report. The study will be the first of a series of Quarterly Reports on a variety of issues relating to critical and strategic minerals, and will serve to kick off an American Resources-hosted policy conference to be held in Washington, DC on June 6, 2012.

Stay tuned for more information on both the report and the conference.

American Resources Policy Network will host a conference on strategic and critical minerals on June 6, 2012 in Washington, D.C. The conference will bring together industry thought-leaders and policymakers to discuss how these resources affect U.S. national security and what can be done to address domestic mineral needs. More details will be available soon.

Amidst a slowly growing awareness of our critical mineral needs and the bureaucratic obstacles to harnessing our domestic mineral potential, U.S. Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-1) has introduced H.R. 4402, the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2012. As per the bill’s official title, it seeks to “require the Secretary of the Interior and [...]

According to a newspaper reports of a (long-overdue) seven-page DoD report titled “Rare Earth Materials in Defense Applications,” sent to Congress last month and which has not yet been made public, “domestic rare earth supplies will meet the U.S. defense industry’s needs by 2013 for the materials that go into military motors and electronics” – [...]

National Mining Association President and CEO Hal Quinn had a great piece in the Washington Times last week striking a tune that will be familiar to readers of our blog. Quinn argued that it’s time for the United States “to develop a strategy to bring more U.S. minerals mining operations online.” Here are some of [...]

Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey (D) had a piece up on The Hill’s Congress Blog last week which highlighted China’s near-total rare earths supply monopoly and resulting challenges for our domestic industries. Among other things, it also called for increased domestic rare earths production. Writes Casey: While I hope to see quick action from China, we [...]

The Rare Earths sector was rocked last week by news of a deal in which Molycorp — the U.S. industry leader ramping up new operations at the old Mountain Pass (California) Mine — tabled a $1.2 billion offer for Toronto-based Neo Materials, which produces a range of Rare Earths powders used in permanent magnets and [...]

American Resources leader Dan McGroarty will be attending the 7th Annual Military Energy Alernatives Conference in Tysons Corner, VA on March 6-8. The conference will discuss how the Department of Defense is implementing renewable technology to achieve energy efficiency and security at the operational level, as well as how renewable energy can be applied more [...]

According to a recent article in the Russian daily Pravda, Russia finds itself locked in a territorial dispute that is becoming increasingly acute. The conflict over the group of four islands, which Russia calls the “Southern Kurils” and Japan calls the “Northern Territories, is the reason why Japan and Russia never signed a peace treaty [...]

This week, I traveled to Seattle, Washington to attend the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration’s (SME) annual meeting, and give a presentation titled “Public Policy in the Resource Wars.” A policy speech at a mining conference is a little like topping your banana split with broccoli; mining folks understand chemistry, geology, economics and physics [...]