Latest U.S. effort to reduce dependence on China for rare earths and critical minerals
Canadian mining insiders say their industry could ultimately benefit if United States President Donald Trump’s fixation on boosting his country’s production of minerals persists. Last Thursday, Trump invoked presidential emergency powers and signed an executive order “to facilitate domestic mineral production to the maximum possible extent” as a matter of national and economic security.
The order cites “our reliance upon hostile foreign powers’ mineral production,” which some say is the U.S.’s latest effort to reduce its dependence on China, which controls large parts of the world’s rare earths and critical minerals supply chains.
But others say the wording was so broad, giving the administration discretion to expedite production on nearly anything — from copper to coal — that it could also be viewed as simply another attempt to breathe life into the moribund U.S. mining industry.
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