Today, we need almost every element in the Periodic Table, plus countless non-metallic minerals

In the Stone Age, humans relied on flint and obsidian. The Bronze Age utilized copper, tin and lead, plus gold and silver. The Iron Age prioritized iron and carbon. Today, we need almost every element in the Periodic Table, plus countless non-metallic minerals.

However, without any attempt to determine what deposits might lie beneath, decisionmakers have made hundreds of millions of acres of America’s "public lands” off limits to exploration and mining, primarily in Alaska and the eleven states west of the Dakotas. They’re managed by federal agencies for nearly every activity and value except potential subsurface treasures.

In fact, well over two-thirdsof those lands have been effectively placed under lock and key: an area larger than Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming combined!

Of course, some places are so unique, magnificent or ecologically priceless that they should be off limits to resource extraction – from Arches to Zion National Park. But America cannot afford wide buffer zones around them, much less buffer zones around the buffer zones.

Moreover, countless other areas have also been closed off – some by acts of Congress, others by presidential or bureaucratic decree, or unending wilderness and wildlife studies. All with virtually no consideration of subsurface values. Sometimes federal officials even refuse to follow the law, because they "don’t think Congress should have enacted laws allowing exploration.”

Many are in regions that in past eons were the most geologically active in North America. Processes unleashed by plate tectonic, volcanic and other forces all but ensure that these lands contain highly mineralized zones, many with world-class deposits of gold, silver, platinum, molybdenum, chromium, antimony, titanium, copper, cobalt, lithium, graphite and other critically needed metals and minerals.

The Comstock Lode and other magnificent discoveries in past centuries further attest to their potential.

Current policies leave the United States vulnerable to political, economic and military pressure

Today, the United States is dangerously dependent on foreign nationsfor 50 to 99% of 34 vital metals and minerals … and 100% of 15 others. China is our primary supplier for 24 of them; Russia for 6. In fact, China controls some 80% of global mining and more than 90% of refining and processing for all 17 rare earth metals. Virtually all graphite, natural and synthetic, is processed in China for export to EV, Powerwall and other lithium-ion battery makers worldwide.

Current policies leave the United States vulnerable to political, economic and military pressure. Revising them and properly evaluating our public lands resource base will take decades, but the process must begin now – for rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical and strategic materials.

Exploratory work has virtually no noticeable impacts on lands or wildlife. Remote sensing technologies on satellites, airplanes and drones will collect data on gravitational, magnetic, electromagnetic and other anomalies and trends across large regions, enabling geologists to zero in on mineralized areas.

Aerial and ground-based mapping of outcrops, rock samples and soil tests, combined with reviews of historical mining and exploration, then pinpoint locations where small drilling rigs collect rock cores and downhole instrumental data, to evaluate mineral content in multiple locations throughout a prospect. All of this helps geologists create 3-D computerized profiles of possible subsurface ore bodies.

Eventually, they learn enough to determine whether a prospect warrants entering the years-long planning, permitting and financing process.

The Trump Administration is advancing multiple strategies to address this national security craziness

Any open pit or underground mining may change land contours, perhaps dramatically, from what we see today, but this is for major metal ore bodies that are vitally important to America; occur very rarely; and average 3-5 square milesWashington, DC is 61 sq mi) for open pit mines, including the mine, processing plants, waste dumps (overburden and tailings), settling ponds, access roads and inactive areas.

All US operations are conducted under strict environmental protection, pollution prevention, waste rock disposal, workplace safety and land reclamation regulations.

However, anti-mining activists want no mining and use hypothetical land disturbance, pollution and endangered species claims to justify delaying, blocking and bankrupting all these activities, even initial exploration, even for materials required for wind, solar and battery technologies. They absurdly claim even a single mine will forever destroy the purity and sanctity of a designated wilderness or other wild area literally the size of Rhode Island, Delaware or Vermont.

Hypocritically, they express few concerns about wind, solar and transmission line projects that blanket, disrupt and destroy tens or hundreds of square miles of scenic and habitat lands, and kill countless birds, bats and terrestrial wildlife – or grid-scale battery installations that threaten human lives.

The Trump Administration is advancing multiple strategies to address this national security craziness.

To ensure near-term replacements for REEsand other materials that China has strategically monopolized, President Trump last week announced US investment deals with Australia, which already has 89 active rare earth exploration projects and will also work with the US to build less-polluting processing plants and improve supply chains Down Under. He is pursuing similar details with other friendly nations.

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at November 06, 2025 01:00 AM (7Hd0c)

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at November 06, 2025 08:16 AM (sADMr)

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