Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

DAVID BLACKMON: Mining Makes An American Comeback

Photo by Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz

America’s mining industry is about to undergo a major rejuvenation. In fact, it has already begun, as illustrated by a series of recent announcements.

One strong example happened on Oct. 27 when JPMorganChase (JPMC) rolled out a $75 million up-front capital investment in Idaho-based antimony miner Perpetua Resources. Perpetua operates the Stibnite Mine located about 140 miles northeast of Boise in central Idaho. Originally established in 1927 as a gold mine, the Stibnite Mine was quickly proven to contain major stores of both silver and antimony, a critical mineral that goes into a wide range of modern products and gadgets, including all forms of renewable energy, bullets, and essentially all modern military weapons systems.

The new stake in Perpetua is the first investment by JPMC from a planned $1.5 trillion fund called the Security and Resiliency Initiative, whose goal is to target companies and projects that are key to enhancing America’s energy and national security. Few projects fit that description more fully than the Stibnite Mine, which I first wrote about in 2021.

“It has become painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing – all of which are essential for our national security,” JPMC Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said in a company release.

Most of that over-dependence on mineral imports involves international supply chains controlled by China. This is a dependency that clearly is not sustainable in the long run. The Trump administration certainly gets it, which is why it has made a variety of recent moves to jump start the domestic mining industry.

The federal Permitting Council announced Oct. 24 that, just six months after having been approved for the FAST-41 program, designed to accelerate permitting for key energy projects, the Lisbon Valley Copper Project in San Juan County, Utah had received the go-ahead to proceed with a major expansion project. Due to its superior conductivity properties, copper is critical to every project related to the nation’s power grid and is also integral to most manufacturing processes.

Although America is home to prodigious copper deposits, it still imports roughly half of its daily needs, again mainly via China-dominated supply chains. The Lisbon Valley project is but one of many new mining projects that will be needed to end that perilous dependency.

Just three days later, the Permitting Council announced that the Donlin Gold Project located 277 miles northwest of Anchorage, Ala. had gained FAST-41 status. In addition to its obvious use in jewelry and trinkets, gold is also used in electronics for its conductivity and non-corrosiveness in connectors, switches, and circuit boards, and in the aerospace industry for its reflectivity and durability in spacecraft and satellite components. Though the U.S. is not a major importer of gold bullion, the mineral’s endemic economic value is obvious in a time of $4,000 per ounce prices.

In total, the Permitting Council lists a dozen active mining projects that have qualified for FAST-41 status, targeting a variety of minerals including lithium, uranium, phosphate, graphite, and brine for geothermal projects, in addition to gold and copper.

The scenario is not entirely rosy, of course. Some mining companies have complained this year about what they see as likely damaging impacts from the Trump tariff agenda and the herky-jerky way in which it has been implemented. But even there, the results have not met the fears. Mike Henry, CEO of mining giant BH, said in an interview with The Signal last week that Trump’s tariffs “haven’t had a significant impact” on the mining industry. But he went on to say that the level of economic volatility since he became CEO in January 2020 – including COVID, Russia’s war on Ukraine, shifting tariffs and other factors — has been “even more significant than any of us were expecting.”

Despite those impacts, BHP continues to pursue numerous U.S. projects, including a multi-billion-dollar copper mining joint venture with Rio Tinto near Phoenix, Ariz.

What it all shows is that, after 40 years of being sidelined by onerous permitting processes, mining is making a comeback in the United States. America cannot afford to become a permanent dependent of China. Down that road lies certain ruin.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Photo by Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz)