While the United States dawdles, Canada has quietly taken the lead in countering China’s grip on the global supply of critical metals. Both the United States and Canada have raised the alarm over China’s control of mineral supply chains, but only our northern neighbors are taking decisive action to do something about it.
It is not rocket science to figure out how to solve the crisis. Nor is it hard to tell whether a country is serious when it proposes a solution. Canada wants to slash the time it takes to get new mines up and running, and it’s zeroing in on streamlining regulatory review and improving its mine permitting process.
With global mineral demand exploding from the energy transition, and China’s grip on mineral markets only tightening, the Canadians recognize time is of the essence.
To reduce reliance on mineral imports from China — and to provide the West with a new, secure and reliable supplier — Canadian authorities say they plan to slash the time it will take to obtain permits to extract and process six battery metals — lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, copper and rare earth elements. Instead of a regulatory and permitting process that takes 12 to 15 years, the plan is to reduce it to five.
For the rest of this article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/03/22/canada-leads-on-critical-minerals-while-the-u-s-falters/