Opinion: U.S. has enough resources to grow mining industry

One reason geologists are unalarmed about U.S. dependence on imported minerals: They know major discoveries of critical minerals in the U.S. have hastened the day when our country will become more self-sufficient.

That day can’t come soon enough because minerals undergird America’s national security and economy.

While China has built a stranglehold on many essential mineral supply chains, U.S. lawmakers have wrung their hands over how to address our ballooning reliance on mineral imports.

The tired message that we don’t have the resources to compete, and must look overseas, needs to be put to bed. Nothing could be further from the truth.

What we lack isn’t minerals but the will to mine them.

With discoveries of large deposits of resources in the U.S. such as rare earths, lithium, nickel and copper, the question as to whether we have the resources is now moot.

The textbook case is what’s been happening with rare earth minerals, which are absolutely essential to advanced weapons systems and many consumer products ranging from batteries for electric cars and solar and wind power to smartphones.

The U.S. has one rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, Calif., but the bulk of rare earths are imported from China.

Because it processes 90% of the world’s production of rare earths, China has a tight grip on the global supply.

But a discovery in Wyoming of rare earths should be a gamechanger. The Halleck Creek project near Wheatland holds an estimated 2.34 billion tons of rare earths, estimated to be the richest reserve in the world. It’s a deposit large enough to tip the geopolitical scales in our favor.

Then there’s lithium, the key battery metal. Demand for the metal has increased dramatically -- and is expected to continue to grow well into the future. As the world’s biggest mineral processor, China also dominates global lithium supply.

The U.S., however, might in fact have the world’s largest lithium resources. Geologists say the McDermitt Caldera, which sits on the northern border between Nevada and Oregon, contains more than double the concentration of lithium than any other bed of clay globally. That’s around 20 to 40 million metric tons in total -- double the lithium deposits in Bolivia’s salt flats, the world’s largest resource.

Most countries send their lithium to China for processing.

For so many of the critical minerals we need, the resources are here. Nickel in Minnesota, cobalt and antimony in Idaho, graphite in Alaska and Alabama, zinc and manganese in Arizona, and some of the world’s finest copper resources. The Resolution Copper project in Arizona – tied up in permitting purgatory – would meet 25% of the nation’s copper needs by itself.

If we can get out of our own way, we unquestionably have the resources to turn our great mineral vulnerability into a strength. But that’s a big “if.” The United States needs to embrace our natural resources. We’re a minerals-rich nation but only if we choose to be.

Jim Constantopoulos is a geology professor at Eastern New Mexico University. Contact him at:

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