The American industry that wants more government intervention

Caption

A portion of Jervois Global's Idaho Cobalt Operations near Salmon, Idaho Oct. 7, 2022 / NPR

President-elect Donald Trump is promising to slash government regulations and even eliminate whole agencies. But one American industry, mining, is asking for more government intervention, saying national economic and military security are at stake.

Some mining industry leaders are calling for the federal government to re-activate the U.S. Bureau of Mines, which President Bill Clinton shuttered.

"Since the mothballing of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, the U.S. has really been underinvesting in mining and in mining R&D and mining workforce development," said Professor Elizabeth Holley at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.

A recent class discussion focused on why the U.S. is losing to countries like China when it comes to mining critical minerals needed for the energy transition.

The country that forgot about mining

For Holley, the story starts when the federal Mines Bureau was disbanded, as the U.S. began turning abroad for minerals in the 1990s. It was cheaper, and less controversial than mining here. But now she says we're vulnerable to major supply chain disruptions.

Holley told a Congressional committee this Fall that the government needs to intervene and help re-shore domestic mining.

"Right now the U.S. graduates fewer than 200 mining engineers per year," she said. "Our current demand is for something like 600, and so there's already a gap."

Rich Nolan, president of the National Mining Association, says the workforce shortage is only one part of a looming crisis.

"We've created our own strategic disadvantage through decades of foreign outsourcing for these materials. And that weakness is about to become a national security weakness as well," Nolan says.

National security, he says, because China just banned exports of rare minerals to the U.S., like antimony used in ammunition. 

"Their ability to manipulate the commodity prices, as we've seen in the past two weeks, is just shocking," Nolan says. "So, they had a twenty-year start and we've got a long way to go to catch up."

Industry requests a 'czar,' and government price-setting

The mining industry has a list of ideas for how to do that, starting with the creation of a mining "czar" to coordinate all research, environmental reviews, production, taxes and permitting across federal agencies.

Many also want the government to set floor prices for some critical minerals, because China sometimes floods the market, tanking prices.

"And it can be sensible and targeted and appropriate," says Matthew Lengerich, head of U.S. operations for the Australian company Jervois Global. That company had to mothball what was to become America's only cobalt mine before it even opened, after China flexed the muscle of its enormous supply advantage.

"Generally we support free market," Lengerich says, "but I think these are unique circumstances that really require us to consider the whole potential universe of solutions."

A new president's campaign promises

Now may seem like a peculiar time to ask for more government intervention, with President-elect Trump pledging to slash government regulations and agencies. On the other hand, Trump likes tariffs, and reducing America's trade deficit with China. The National Mining Association's Rich Nolan is confident Trump will aggressively push to re-shore mining.

"With a change in administration I think you're going to see a re-emphasis on that America First agenda which includes what's made in America should be mined in America," Nolan says.

The Biden administration, though, has made significant investments in domestic mining, earmarking more than $6 billion to support the industry.

Together, two new lithium mines in Nevada, and the Idaho cobalt mine, are getting more than $3 billion in grants and loans.

But the soonest one of the lithium mines could open would be 2027. Environmentalists are suing over one, the just-permitted Rhyolite Ridge mine. And, barring government intervention, the price of cobalt is expected to remain too low to justify operating a mine for it in the U.S.

U.S. mining's distinct accent

Bernard Rowe is CEO of the Australian company Ioneer that's developing the Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada. He says the industry still faces a perception problem in America, largely due to the ills of the past.

"You know there's a lot of safeguards now that mean that companies, must, as they should, they must have detailed planning, not only about developing a mine but also closing and restoring and reclaiming it," says Rowe.

It's not lost on him that there are a lot of Aussies developing the new mines in the U.S. right now either.

"Because there hasn't been this continuous mining industry functioning at a fairly high level, it's sort of been in decline for a long time," Rowe says, "then of course one of the ramifications is there's not young people, not enough, anyway."

So the expertise is being imported.

Back at the Colorado School of Mines, there are small signs things may be changing. Caroline Ruppert, a Ph.D. student, did her undergrad at Smith College where she says there was a big environmental movement but no mention of mining's role in transitioning to cleaner energy.

"Given that I didn't hear about it at all in my very liberal undergrad campus, it's not a conversation topic and I think it needs to be, because if we're going to try and use more green tech, we will need to extract that or recycle that," Ruppert says, adding that the best way to make environmental change in an industry is to join it.