My, baby, my: America needs to dig deep to help our troops

President-elect Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs several weeks ago against the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and others) that seek to exploit the US dollar is a cautious and aggressive move by the world’s currency. But that night, the leader of BRICS – China – immediately responded: America’s refusal to import many vital minerals needed for national defense, but now they are imported from BRICS countries.

On New Year’s Day, China raised the bar. It added 28 US defense industry companies to its export control list, which restricts the export of “dual use” materials to these companies for both commercial and defense purposes.

What does this mean? If the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) bans the export of these critical materials like rare earth permanent magnets – which I believe they will – the long-feared critical mineral war begins. This was predicted in the pages of FoxNews.com as early as 2023.

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China has launched these attacks in what appears to be actions taken by the Biden administration. But China knows that throwing a critical mine hook at the US military will serve several strategic goals that benefit China and the BRICS cabal.

• It directly undermines US national security without having to fire a bullet.
• It’s a strong response to U.S. export restrictions without engaging in a losing battle with the U.S. tariff master.
• It should boost earnings for BRICs-based minerals producers, weaken global competitors and potentially exacerbate inflation in the US.
• It allows China and its BRIC partners to step into the ring with the US, which has had both hands tied behind its back in recent decades on the production of critical minerals.

But the BRICS countries may have made a serious miscalculation: they underestimated America’s ability to usher in a new era of “mine, baby, mine” under Trump. Domestic critical mining in the US – including in much-discussed regions like Greenland – is key to eliminating the BRICS nations’ dangerous influence on our economy and national security.

The BRICS will start with a huge advantage over the US, all of whom have rich mineral resources and are interested in exploiting their value for their own economic, military and geopolitical advantage. Collectively, rare earths, niobium, scandium, titanium metals, vanadium, nickel, antimony, cobalt, lithium, graphite, gallium, platinum and many others dominate or significantly influence global supply chains. The breadth and depth of this geopolitical power would send shivers down the spine of any serious American military planner.

For example, state-controlled entities in China and Russia manipulate commodity prices of critical minerals to capture market share. They secrete their molecules through third parties to hide provenance and avoid tariffs. They invest orders of magnitude more than the US in mining research, development and specialized workforce training, further cementing their huge competitive advantage.

The BRICS nations have relied on fueling anti-mining sentiment in the US by raising funds for international anti-mining activists who work to tie up US mining projects in red tape and endless litigation.

If America wants to compete with China, we need to expand our own rare earth production. FILE: An open pit mine at Molycorp’s rare earth facility in Mountain Pass, California. (Reuters)

China ranks first in BRICS mineral consumption. CCP-controlled companies have helped China become a major producer and/or refiner of more than half of the 50 minerals the Chinese government has deemed critical. Moreover, recent moves to limit US access to some critical minerals show that the CCP is clearly willing to leverage this advantage.

Make no mistake, restrictions on vital minerals exports to the US can grow. At some point, such bans — especially if they extend to magnetic rare earth elements, which I now believe are inevitable — mean newly built F-35s can’t fly, smart bombs will be dumbed down, advanced submarines won’t work, and so on. Soldiers will lose future night vision goggles.

How will the incoming Trump administration deal with the BRICS mining threat? In the interest of clarity, note that I am a 40+ year veteran of the mining industry and that my team and I are building an advanced critical mining project in Nebraska today. I have a personal interest in seeing America increase mining development. But I offer the following suggestions on behalf of the industry and, most importantly, America’s national security.

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• Provide low-interest loans to new miners who have obtained all necessary federal, state and local permits and have strong buy-in from local communities.

• Focus on polymetallic mines that can produce multiple critical minerals from a single ore and expand production by recycling post-consumer waste streams such as rare earth permanent magnets.
• Expand the authority of the US Department of Defense through the Office of Strategic Capital and Title III programs to become the primary source of funding for new mines. It would also allow the National Defense Reserve to build a much larger stockpile of defense-critical minerals and enter into purchase agreements with US mines that have yet to begin production.
• Encourage the US Export-Import Bank (EXIM) to accelerate debt financing of domestic critical mineral projects. Thanks to this, EXIM has begun to finance domestic US projects for the first time in its history. Moreover, EXIM’s loan proceeds have historically covered operational costs and enabled net government revenue. Few government agencies offer such value.
• Waives National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews for defense critical minerals projects that are not subject to NEPA but are eligible for federal funding.

CCP-controlled companies have helped China become a major producer and/or refiner of more than half of the 50 minerals the Chinese government has deemed critical. Moreover, recent moves to restrict US access to some critical minerals show that the CCP is clearly willing to leverage this advantage.

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• Set reasonable limits on litigation time limits. It now takes an average of 29 years to mine online in the US, only Zambia is worse.
• Streamline federal licensing processes. The first Trump administration made good progress on this, but much of it has been reversed by subsequent executive orders. Allowing for changes in US laws is mandatory.

The US mines and processes minerals more efficiently and with better environmental stewardship than any other country. Let’s restore and unlock America’s entrepreneurial spirit and “mine, baby, mine” our way to a more prosperous and secure future.