Strategic Materials –
2021 Antonelli Award Winner: The fragility of today’s critical minerals global value chain poses an untenable risk to the national security and economic prosperity of the United States. With domestic supply lagging after decades of underinvestment and inattention, the United States relies heavily upon foreign sources for dozens of mineral products that form the fabric of the U.S. economy and defense industrial base. While some of these foreign sources are steadfast U.S. allies, other less dependable foreign suppliers like China or politically unstable states represent serious supply vulnerabilities and risks. Exacerbating the situation, global trends in manufacturing and green technology portend higher future demand and heated competition for these vital materials. On its current path, the United States is not well-positioned to compete successfully for these essential components.
Mineral extraction and processing is a notoriously expensive, complex, and risky industry subject to the vagaries of price swings. Such difficult market forces reinforced by unsupportive investment climates and weak social licenses to operate at home and abroad have led to an underdeveloped domestic minerals sector and serious challenges for U.S. mining companies overseas. This dynamic has led to a divergence between what the United States needs for its national security and what the free market is able to provide. By contrast, U.S. competitors, like China, eschew free market principles to successfully prop up domestic champions, manipulate minerals markets, and use political pressure to access minerals overseas.
To mitigate the risk of potentially catastrophic supply disruptions in critical minerals and their downstream products, the United States must take immediate, bold, and whole-of-government action in concert with global partners to correct its course. The United States should implement new minerals policies that prioritize and strengthen government coordination structures, form new international partnerships, improve foreign and domestic investment climates, enhance the sector’s sustainability, and integrate supply stocks. This paper will provide tangible, interrelated policy recommendations within these key areas based on close examination and analysis of the critical mineral mining industry and its future challenges and opportunities. These policies adopted together will form a reinforcing set of coherent actions whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Like mining, these recommendations will require long-term, sustained commitments of political and financial resources but ultimately should strengthen U.S. national security and economic prosperity for decades to come.
The window of opportunity is now. Without action, the U.S. mineral dependence on unreliable sources will further constrain the U.S. strategic decision space. Adversaries will be able to exploit their dominance of mineral supply chains to coerce the United States and its allies into acting against their national security interests. The United States should harness and focus its resources, allies, and political will now to prevent this scenario and safeguard a prosperous and secure future.
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