American resources

Earlier this month, China’s President Hu Jintao paid a three-day visit to Denmark. Danish officials were quick to dismiss speculations that Arctic issues were on the agenda, but the fact that “the leader of the world’s most populous country decided to visit a nation of 5.6-million for the first time in 62 years” only two weeks after visiting Iceland naturally invites the question “what China wants in the far north,” as MiningWeekly.com put it.

The question becomes all the more relevant against the backdrop of Denmark reportedly having made a strategic decision to serve as “the key gateway for Beijing’s commercial an strategic entrée in to the Arctic” earlier this year. Greenland, which is a self-governing dependency of Denmark, is seen as a bargaining chip by Denmark in its efforts to bolster its trade relations with Beijing, largely due to its mineral riches, which, as American Resources principal Dan McGroarty has previously pointed out, makes Greenland “as a stand-alone state something akin to Saudi Arabia – save that the Saudis are a uni-dimensional resource superpower, shackled for better or worse to the petro-economy.”

China’s forays into the Arctic circle, and fears that China, which already controls more than 97% of global rare earth production, might gain control over Greenland’s rare earths may have influenced the EU Commission’s decision to sign an letter of understanding with Greenland to “ensure that Greenland’s minerals remained available to free markets in the future.”

The United States’ claim in the Arctic regioin comes via Alaska. Perhaps now would be a good time to show up on the Arctic stage and harness the state’s significant resource potential.

Having honored those who have served our country on Memorial Day yesterday, this week may be an appropriate time to note that our military servicemen and –women could not fulfill their mission to protect the homeland and project American power around the globe as effectively as they do if it wasn’t for a broad range of critical metals and minerals. These non-fuel materials are essential not only to our commercial manufacturing base and our aspirations to transition to a green-energy economy, but also to advanced weapons systems and other military applications, and are thus a matter of national security.

While given that, one would expect that formulating a coherent national mineral strategy to ensure such access would be a public policy imperative, a new study by the American Resources Policy Network finds that this, unfortunately, is not the case.

The study, to be formally released at the The Strategic Minerals Conference 2012, taking place on June 6, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, attempts to give a snapshot of the federal government’s approach to the United States’ mineral supply needs by reviewing recent government literature on the issue. The report will be available at www.americanresources.org after the conference.

The key questions guiding our research for the report -

1. Is there a consensus on which metals or minerals are “critical and/or strategic?”
2. What is our supply risk or import exposure (drawing on USGS data)?
3. How do we square private market activity with public policy to reduce resource dependency where possible and ensure surety of supply?

- will also be taken up and elaborated upon by a formidable lineup of speakers and panelists at the June 6th event.

 

For more information including related video from some of the conference participants, and an updated agenda as the event date draws closer visit www.strategicmineralsconference.com.

Sounding the alarm on the possible impact of hypothetical mining — in spite of the fact that no permit application or specific plans have been submitted — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a cursory review of the Bristol Bay Watershed in Alaska. The EPA’s unprecedented early action is part of the agency’s effort [...]

If you haven’t lived under a rock lately (pun intended), you are probably aware of the fact that there is growing concern regarding the supply of mineral resources. While American Resources has consistently argued that the U.S. has subjected itself to a troubling degree of non-fuel mineral import dependency, which is often greater than our [...]

ARPN’s Tungsten Month is over, but we will make an exception in the case for investment legend Warren Buffett. It seems one of his investment arms is taking a position in the re-commissioned tungsten mine in the United Kingdom, last operated as part of the industrial war effort during World War II. As American Resource [...]

This week’s Critical Metals Report on the Gold Report’s website features an exclusive detailed interview with the latest expert to join the American Resources panel of experts: Jeffery Green, President and Founder of J.A. Green & Company, and Founder of the Strategic Materials Advisory Council. Discussing the U.S. policy landscape against the backdrop of the [...]

American Resources expert Lisa Reisman’s blog MetalMiner had some cheerful news to share this week: The U.S. Steel Industry is leading the world – and this is not just a blast from the past. Some of the post’s key points: Steel production is up 5.7 percent to 7.6 million tons in January.   According to [...]

Beginning today, official Washington hosts a visit from China’s Vice-President Xi Jinping, widely seen as the successor to current President Hu Jintao, who steps down later this year as head of China’s Communist Party, and cedes the presidency in 2013. The visit highlights a number of issues that make the current U.S-China relationship contentious. For [...]

American Resources followers know their Rare Earths from their rare metals, and that distinction is key to understanding a strategic investment that’s getting a lot of attention right now: Molymet of Chile’s $390 million investment in Molycorp, the U.S. Rare Earths miner. But while most analysts are looking for the commercial synergies in the deal, [...]

While all eyes were on President Obama’s State of the Union address earlier in the week, this is also the time when our nation’s governors deliver their State of the State addresses, taking account of the current situation, and outlining their policy initiatives for the coming year.  From an American Resources perspective, Alaska Gov. Sean [...]