Commenting specifically on one of the bills pending in the committee, the ‘‘National Strategic and Critical Minerals Policy Act of 2013’’ (HR 1063), introduced by Congressman Doug Lamborn (R, Colo.), McGroarty stressed the importance of aligning the United States’ public policy with the goal of strengthening America’s resource sector against the backdrop of our – unnecessary – over-reliance on foreign mineral resources.

In his testimony, McGroarty highlighted three steps Chairman Lamborn’s bill would take to reduce our mineral dependencies, which include strengthening our assessment capabilities, eliminating duplication in the permitting process, and the requirement for a “National Mineral Assessment.”

Here’s an excerpt:

“The second key section in the Lamborn legislation concerns eliminating needless duplication in the mine permitting process – a process that today, in the leading independent study, earns the U.S. worst-in-the-world ranking, tied for last with Papua New Guinea, with the average mine permitting process in the U.S. taking 7-10 years. And this metric is getting worse, not better: Just 4 years ago, in 2009, the same study found the U.S. process took an average of 5 to 7 years.

And little wonder why. One day, the DoD releases a study showing 23 metals and minerals in potential shortfall, while the DoE declares a dozen minerals critical to the green-tech and clean-energy transition. But at the very same time the U.S. EPA moves to stop a proposed American copper mine – a metal whose short supply, DoD tells us, has already caused “a significant weapon system production delay” – before the permitting process has even begun.

So with so many mixed signals coming from the federal government, let’s ask ourselves: If you were an American manufacturer, dependent on metals and minerals engineered into your products, could you risk waiting for a reliable source of American supply? Or would you build your new facility where the metals are – in China, perhaps – exporting jobs and Intellectual Property, sacrificing GDP and feeding a negative balance of trade as we buy back products that could have been, should have been, made here in America?”

McGroarty’s conclusion:

“The Lamborn bill is a solid test of our seriousness on this issue. If enacted, it would provide the fact-base for a data-driven assessment of our domestic resource potential, our vulnerability to foreign supply, and the obstacles that stand between us and a greater degree of resource independence.”

To read the full testimony, click here.

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With niobium not having been commercially mined in the U.S. since 1959, Quantum’s Nebraska project would not only make the company the only niobium miner in the U.S., it also constitutes an important step in the direction of reducing U.S. dependency on foreign imports of critical non-fuel mineral resources.

Current legislative efforts to remove barriers to domestic resource development in Congress, one of which has just cleared the House Committee on Natural Resources, would do their part to improve the U.S. strategic and economic outlook as the global race for resources heats up.

The post Enter Niobium – critical element to be mined in U.S. appeared first on American Resources Policy Network.

Dr. Robert Latiff, a retired U.S Air Force Major General, is Research Professor and Director of the Intelligence and Security Research Center at George Mason University.  In May, Dr. Latiff testified before the U.S House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources on the subject of “Domestic Minerals Supplies and Demands in a Time of Foreign Supply Disruption.”

Dr. Corby G. Anderson, a professionally registered engineer with nearly 32 years of experience in process, chemical and metallurgical engineering, engineering services, currently serves as Harrison Western Professor of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering for the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy at the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Anderson was recently named a Fellow of the London-based Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

To learn more about their work, and our other panelists, visit our experts page.

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One of my main goals was to highlight that in order to maintain our modern economy, we need a steady supply of metals and minerals – and that choosing not to produce the ones we have beneath our home turf perpetuates a needless and potentially harmful foreign dependence.

Subcommittee Chairman Doug Lamborn (R, CO-05) set the tone in his opening remarks:

We will continue to ship American jobs overseas and forfeit our economic competitiveness unless we take steps to develop our own mineral resources … Developing our Nation’s mineral resources is not only an integral part of an all-of-the-above energy plan but it will create long-term family wage jobs, stimulate our economy and reduce our foreign dependence on mineral resources.

Congress isn’t lacking these days for issues demanding its attention.  ARPN will be watching to see whether Chairman Lamborn and his fellow Members who have the House Natural Resource portfolio can get their colleagues to give resource security the attention it deserves.

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With China tightening its rare earths export policies yet again, and some commodity prices soaring to record highs, Tuesday’s hearing couldn’t be more timely. Watch it live via http://naturalresources.house.gov/Live/ and check for updates on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ARPNetwork and Twitter (@ARPNetwork).

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