In the race to find critical minerals, there’s a ‘gold mine’ literally at our shoreline

The Hunt for Critical Minerals Can’t Lead the US Astray

China dominates production of several key ingredients of modern militaries and economies. That’s no reason to strong-arm Ukraine, buy Greenland or invade Canada.
The preoccupation with mineral resources is understandable. China dominates the mining and refining of several raw materials needed to produce key building blocks of modern militaries and economies, from semiconductors to radars and electric-vehicle batteries. Efforts to reshore supply chains have made halting progress: Opening new mines and processing facilities is expensive, time-consuming, environmentally fraught and commercially challenging when Chinese companies can raise or lower production to control prices.

A new executive order signed last week aims to streamline permitting, open up federal lands to mineral production, and unlock funds for mining and processing projects. But more can be done. Although the Pentagon says it’s on track to develop a “mine-to-magnet” supply chain to meet defense needs by 2027, for instance, current stockpiles are too small to handle even a relatively short cutoff in supplies. Funding and inventories should be boosted to insure against a more protracted conflict.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-03-28/us-needs-critical-minerals-threats-are-a-bad-way-to-get-them?srnd=homepage-canada&sref=bsUD5q46 $GPH