To make its defense and industrial supply chain safe, America is now going to set up processing plants of important minerals within the military base itself. Under this initiative, processing of strategic minerals like rare earth minerals, lithium, graphite and boron will be done on American military bases. Its objective is to reduce dependence on China, make defense production safe and strengthen the domestic supply chain to deal with future geopolitical challenges.
America has taken a big step considering the supply of important minerals as an issue of national security. The Pentagon has signed agreements with several companies, under which mineral processing facilities will be developed on American military bases. This will be the first time that America will use military infrastructure for mineral processing on a large scale.
Which companies got the responsibility
According to Bloomberg report, REalloys Inc., Titan Mining Corp., Ioneer Ltd. And Energy Exploration Technologies (EnergyX) are involved in this project. Among these, Australia’s Ioneer is the only non-American company. The government is also providing loans and investment assistance for these projects. REalloys will set up a rare earth elements processing and separation facility at Tooele Army Depot in Utah. A part of the material prepared here will be kept safe for military use.
Titan Mining has got the responsibility of setting up graphite purification plants at Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas and Anniston Army Depot in Alabama. EnergyX will develop Lithium Processing Unit and Ioneer Boron Processing Plant. Rare earth minerals, lithium and graphite are used in electric vehicles, mobile phones, computer chips, missile systems, fighter jets and advanced defense equipment. In particular, heavy rare earth elements like terbium and dysprosium are used to make heat-resistant magnets, which are very important for the defense industry.
Mineral sector becomes priority of Trump administration
Increasing domestic production of critical minerals has become a major policy in the second term of President Donald Trump. In this direction, America has also started a plan to create a strategic mineral reserve of $12 billion. Apart from this, the government has announced to provide loans and financial support worth crores of dollars to many companies. In recent years, competition between China and Western countries regarding important minerals has increased. China controls the majority of global rare earth processing capacity. Recently, China has also imposed export controls on some American rare earth companies. In such a situation, America is taking rapid steps towards making its supply chain safe and strong at the domestic level.
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