Importance of mining highlighted by recent developments

On Aug. 25, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) grabbed the attention of the mining industry when it announced plans to expand the critical minerals list from 50 to 54. At long last, copper, lead and silver were added to the proposed list. The critical minerals list is intended to help the United States address its vulnerability to supply-chain disruptions for minerals that are crucial to its economy and national security. Some could argue that every element on the periodic table is crucial in its own right. The USGS didn’t go that far, but it did adjust the methodology used to create the list to reflect USGS advances in forecasting potential mineral supply-chain disruptions. The USGS said that its supply-chain disruption model assessed the potential effects of more than 1,200 trade disruption scenarios of 84 mineral commodities on 402 individual industries and the U.S. economy overall. The modeled economic impacts were then weighted by the probability of the disruption scenario. Probability weighting combines the likelihood of a scenario occurring with the impact of the scenario. One scenario was the complete restriction of imports of rhodium from South Africa. The model found the impact on U.S. GDP was estimated to be a decrease of $64 billion, but its probability of occurrence was only 3.9 percent, yielding a probability-weighted impact of nearly $2.5 billion. In December 2024, a very real scenario began when China announced a ban on the exports of antimony.“The United States found itself in a bit of a tough spot, when China enacted that ban,” Jon Cherry, president and chief executive officer of Perpetua Resources told me. Perpetua Resources owns the Stibnite Mine in Idaho, which hosts the largest known reserve of antimony in the United States. “There are a lot of different uses for the antimony, whether it’s munition products, fire retardants, night-vision goggles … there’s a whole laundry list of things that are critical that the military uses. And with China putting in their export ban, it became a much more heightened national security interest.” It also got the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense, which provided $80 million to the development of the Stibnite project. On Sept. 19, the project, which is also a source for tungsten and gold received a conditional notice to proceed from the U.S. Forest Service, clearing the way for the company to begin early works construction this fall. The importance of critical minerals and domestic mining to national defense has gained more traction in recent months. In its announcement of a revised critical minerals list the USGS acknowledged as much. Secretary Doug Burgum said, “This draft List of Critical Minerals provides a clear, science-based roadmap to reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries, expand domestic production and unleash American innovation.” In Idaho, Cherry was joined by a host of leaders from across the country including Idaho Gov. Brad Little, U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Undersecretary Kristin Sleeper, and U.S. Army Major General John Reim, Joint Program Executive Officer Armaments & Ammunition and Picatinny Arsenal Commanding General. “The Stibnite project currently holds the largest identified reserve of antimony in the U.S. It is one of the largest antimony reserves outside of foreign control,” said Reim. “This mine offers a secure, reliable, domestic resource for military-grade antimony sulfide and is aligned with the Army’s ongoing ‘Ground-to-Round’ assured munitions strategy for establishing a complete domestic supply chain, from raw-material access to material processing to ammunition production, as we modernize and fortify the Arsenal of Democracy.” On Sept. 23, Reuters reported that the United States took another significant step in securing antimony when the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency awarded a five-year contract to United States Antimony Corp. to supply antimony metal ingots for the defense stockpile. The contract could be worth up to $245 million.Antimony is just one of many minerals that the United States depends on for a range of security, both national and economic. The updated critical minerals list will help guide federal strategy, investment, and permitting decisions designed to secure the minerals needed to drive the U.S. economy and protect national security. This is welcome news for a number of projects in the United States that are working to get past the finish line and into production, and welcome recognition of the importance of mining in the United States.

Importance of mining highlighted by recent developments

Authored by: William Gleason

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