Imagine the chaos if American companies suddenly were unable to access key materials used in technology that supports everything from cellphones to hybrid cars to guided missiles.
A recent Government Accountability Office report found that the United States now gets all of the rare earth metals it uses to support our national defense and quality of life from abroad. While once the world depended on the United States for rare earth materials and manufacturing, it now turns to China for 97 percent of the supply.
That should give any reasonable person pause.
Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman finds that switch in fortunes alarming, and has introduced intriguing legislation meant to supercharge the rebirth of competitive domestic mining, processing and development of the materials.
We appreciate Coffman’s leadership on this issue, and urge Congress to give his H.R. 4866 careful consideration. However, it will be up to Coffman to make the case for one of the bill’s more controversial features: government-backed loans to help jump-start the mining process.
The GAO notes that the Department of Defense is completing a study evaluating the impact of the China-heavy supply of the materials on national security.
Already, the demand for the material in China has led the country to curtail its exports. Moreover, China has accelerated its interest in establishing itself as a major military power.
Meanwhile, a Colorado-based company, Molycorp Minerals, owns the Mountain Pass, Calif., mine that once produced most of the rare earth metals, which are prized for the special magnetic qualities that don’t degrade even in intense heat. The mine ran into environmental problems in the late 1990s and closed in 2002.
The 17 rare earth metals at issue can be found in other parts of the country, including Colorado, and also in Canada, Australia, India, Brazil and elsewhere.
Coffman seeks to require the Defense Department to bolster its stockpiles of rare earth metals, and to provide government-backed loans to companies like Molycorp that seek to restart mines or begin new production sites as the cost of startup runs in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Separately, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter is seeking a $1.5 million appropriation to support the Center for Critical and Strategic Materials at the Colorado School of Mines, asserting that “Our nation cannot afford to rely on unfriendly foreign nations to provide the essential elements of our technological advances.”
A resurgent domestic rare earth metals industry would also benefit Colorado in other ways. The materials are used in green-energy solutions such as wind turbines.
We have been supportive of federal subsidies in the development of renewable energy and support critical needs such as defense. So we’re pleased to see Coffman addressing the issue.
A key question is whether friendly nations like Canada and Australia could provide enough of the supply to reduce our dependence on China.
If not, Congress must decide if access to domestic supplies to rare earth metals is so important that it justifies a potential bailout of a costly mining venture.
