The Defense Department is short-sighted in its assessment that China’s monopoly on rare-earth materials, which are used in military hardware, poses no threat to national security, said Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo.
The Pentagon’s report, on which some members of Congress have been briefed prior to its release, notes that rising prices and supply uncertainties are spurring private investment in new mining operations outside of China that will help meet American military needs, a person familiar with the findings said. Military use accounts for less than 5 percent of U.S. rare-earth consumption, according to the report.
“I strongly disagree” with the report’s conclusions, said Coffman, who received a briefing Monday on the Pentagon’s year-long study.
“It’s a very myopic view, and it’s certainly not looking at the economic security of the country,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s only looking at the Department of Defense.”
The Pentagon assessment does not take into account the shortages and supply constraints faced by makers of batteries and magnets used in products such as wind turbines as a result of China’s controlling 97 percent of the world’s rare earths, Coffman said.
Coffman said he plans to sponsor legislation that he hopes the House of Representatives will consider when it convenes after the midterm elections. The measure would help U.S. mining companies such as Greenwood Village-based Molycorp Inc. “create a competitive supply chain from mining to processing.”
