President Biden is eyeing up at least a dozen overseas mining projects in a bid to shore up the resources needed to produce renewable energy.
A raw material scarcity is holding up electric vehicle production; demand for materials like lithium, used in electric vehicle batteries and solar panels, is rapidly rising and the high costs associated with these materials is contributing to inflation.
Jose Fernandez, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, told Axios the administration has 'around a dozen' projects around the world that could potentially be funded through the Mineral Security Partnership - a Biden-founded group of nations dedicated to shoring up minerals.
The move is sure to draw criticism from the right as Republicans believe Biden is holding up mineral projects here at home.
In this aerial view, pools of brine containing lithium carbonate and mounds of salt bi-product stretch through a lithium mine in the Atacama Desert on August 24, 2022 in Salar de Atacama, Chile
This mine is located in Riotinto, Huelva, Spain. This area along the Rio Tinto, in the Andalusian, Spain has been mined for copper, silver, gold, and other minerals
Rep. Bruce Westerman, the incoming chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, said that directly financing foreign projects is 'horrific,' even though the U.S. 'need[s] to be forming alliances with our friends around the world.'
Currently the global supply chains for minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite are dominated by China.
The federal funding would come through two avenues - the Export-Import bank and the Development Finance Corporation.
Fernandez told Axios the program 'is what we believe is the best way to address' the problem that 'we're going to need an exponential amount of rare earths and critical minerals, above what we have today.'
The U.S. is currently in talks with American carmakers, including Ford, General Motors, Rivian and Tesla, on the project and at least two U.S. lithium mining firms, Albemarle and Piedmont Lithium.
The Biden administration has approved few new mining permits on federal land and the industry argues that launching a new mining project domestically often means an onerous environmental review at the federal level.
Legal challenges to prominent mining projects coupled with a permitting backlog has detracted investors from financing mining projects in the U.S. It's not for lack of potential in the U.S. - Nevada is experiencing a boom in exploration for lithium while one company in Idaho is looking to mine the state's 'cobalt belt.'
Another company in Alaska wants to mine a coastal graphite deposit that could be one of the world's biggest.
Biden's Environmental Protection Agency is trying to crush a gold and copper mining project in southwest Alaska to protect a watershed after canceling two major federal mineral leases held by Twin Metals Minnesota earlier this year and slow-walking others.
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