Ivanhoe’s Kipushi zinc mine in the DRC officially reopens
The restart marked exactly a century since the mine first went into production.
The United States should take a cue from Canada when it comes to speeding up the environmental approval of mining and energy projects. As US projects wither on the vine due to an excessive and Byzantine environmental approval process (as an example take Polymet Mining’s project in Minnesota which has been pored over by government officials for 7 years), in Canada the government finally took the bull by the horns and said in yesterday’s budget it would “… streamline the review process for major projects, according to the following principle: one project, one review, completed in a clearly defined time period.”
Hal Quinn, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, seems to agree. In an op-ed in The Washington Times, Quinn notes that over the last 20 years, the US share of global investment in mining has been cut in half, from 20% to 8%. This has made the US more dependent on other countries for metals, including strategic metals like rare earths. No surprise, then, to see the Obama Adminstration earlier this month challenging China at the World Trade Organization for its export restrictions on rare earth elements needed in everything from cell phones to electric car batteries to missile guidance systems. China controls 95% of rare earth production and 75% of graphite, both of which are considered strategic minerals. (There is currently only one US producer of rare earths, Molycorp, and no producers of graphite) Quinn says the US is losing out to other countries, and he’s right:
It currently takes up to five times longer to get approval to mine for minerals here than it does in other countries, driving investment, production and jobs away from America. From the time a project request is submitted to the time a final ruling is made, a decade can slip by and paperwork as much as 6 feet high filed and reviewed – repeatedly. Not surprisingly, when investors are ready to move on a project, they turn to countries that are ready to do business, rather than tackle the Byzantine regulatory review process here in the United States.
This despite the fact that the Unites States is estimated to contain $6.2 trillion in mineral resources. Here is Quinn’s recommendation:
The United States must follow suit and develop a strategy to bring more U.S. minerals mining operations online. If our leaders fail to act, supply disruptions will continue to pose a threat, not only to minerals users and manufacturers, but to the U.S. economy as a whole.
And the soundbite:
People wonder why our economy isn’t humming the way it should. You know there’s a problem when we rely more every year on mineral imports despite having the good fortune of leading the world in the diversity of our domestic commodity mineral supplies.
Continue reading the op-ed here
3 Comments
Mrkhrdr
The US is infamous for its long delays in permitting. I doubt that 7yrs of study is necessary to determine compliances and make suggestions. I doubt it does anything to protect workers and the environment. You’re right. It’s time for a change.
Vic Chevillon
Terry must have missed something on his lunch break. There is a vast difference between mineral resources and mineral reserves that have been found through exploration, developed and mined and then can be sold. The rich, conspicuous consumpltionists, environmental lobby and their emotional fear of mining, but their dis proportionate use of mining products has caused the Byzantine exploration and mining permitting bureaucracy in the US and elsewhere. It’s a government enterprise that is thriving at the public’s expense. The old double standard is at play here, related to how the lobbyist get their money and spend it. If Terry were to get on Google Earth and total the areas of US mall and new Walmart parking lots against the total acres of all US metal mines, then compare the environmental permitting requirements for each sector,. he’d be startled at just how easy it is to consume and how difficult it is to find produce metal that he needs to live in his style. Metal is civilization and security, much like efficient hydrocarbon energy. Sure Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan and others in the region have vast mineral wealth to offer, but too many eggs in one basket bites like a kur dog. President Obama’s recent demands for China to not restrict lithium exports (they control 95% of the worlds Lithium reserves required for new battery and material science technologies) is an example of what can happen when a country permits it’s way of life out of existence. We need change in the right direction. .
Terry
With minerals being non-renewable, and the 6.2 trillion worth of reserves, it sounds like if the US speeds up approvals, they will just run out of mining opportunities sooner. Let the other remote countries (like Canada and China) destroy their environment with un-checked accelerated approvals, then sell them the US reserves for prime dollar in the future.