https://www.fairfieldsuntimes.com/
President Donald Trump invoked a wartime and emergency law in March to bolster critical materials and rare-earth metals mining production in the U.S.
“The Defense Production Act (DPA) will be used to expand domestic mineral production capacity,” reads the order, referring to the federal law that was established during the Korean War, invoked during the Cold War to help bolster U.S. aluminum and titanium industries, and most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic to increase manufacturing of masks and ventilators.
Now, there could be an effort by Trump to use his emergency powers under the DPA to bolster platinum and palladium mining in Montana and curtail Russian imports of the precious metals. Montana is the only state where platinum and palladium (the latter used mostly in catalytic converters for cars and trucks) is mined.
Russian metals imports — which have not been restricted by U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine — have driven down the price of palladium, according to Sibanye-Stillwater LLC, which operates two mines in Montana. The price of palladium was as high as $3,000 per ounce in March 2022 right after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The price has dropped more than 68% since then with palladium prices trading at or below $1,000 per ounce, according to APMEX.com. Palladium closed at $944.50 per ounce on Monday, May 12.
For the rest of this article: https://www.fairfieldsuntimes.com/news/state/could-trump-use-wartime-emergency-law-to-boost-montana-metals-mining-curtail-russian-imports/article_48a209ae-e13a-5212-8d56-0181c84665df.html