The United States, and everyone else, fights for rare minerals

WASHINGTON – For decades, a group comprising the world’s largest oil producers has dominated the US economy and the popularity of US presidents through its control of the world’s oil supply, while the decisions of the world’s oil companies OPEC determine what US consumers pay at the pump.

As the world moves towards cleaner energy sources, control over the materials needed to power that transition is available to anyone who wants it.

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Right now, China dominates the world’s processing of critical minerals, now in high demand, to make batteries for electric vehicles and to store renewable energy.

In an effort to gain more leverage over that supply chain, US authorities have begun negotiating a series of deals with other countries expand the country’s access to important minerals such as el lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite.

But uncertainty remains as to which of these alliances will be successful or whether they will be able to generate anything close to the mineral supply the United States is expected to need for a wide range of products, including electric vehicles and batteries for storage. solar energy.

The rulers of Japan, Europe and other advanced nations, meeting in Hiroshima, agree that the world’s dependence on China for processing more than 80 percent of its minerals makes their nations vulnerable to political pressure from Beijing, a government known to use the supply chains as a weapon in times of conflict.

Saturday the leaders of the group of seven They reiterated the need to manage the risks posed by vulnerable mineral supply chains and build more resilient sources.

The United States and Australia have announced an alliance to share information and coordinate regulations and investments to create more responsible and sustainable supply chains.

“This is a huge step, from our point of view; a huge step forward in our fight against the climate crisis,” the president said on Saturday Joe Biden during the signing of the agreement with Australia.

However, finding a way to access all the minerals the United States will need will remain a challenge.

Many mineral-rich nations have poor labor and environmental regulations. And while G7 speeches have emphasized alliances and partnerships, rich countries are still essentially competing for scarce resources.

Japan has signed a critical minerals deal with the US and Europe is negotiating one.

But, like the United States, those regions are in high demand for critical minerals to supply their factories. greater than the available offer.

Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, said in an interview that allied countries have an important partnership in the sector, but are also, to some extent, trade competitors.

“It’s a partnership, but with certain levels of tension,” he said.

“It is a complicated economic geopolitical moment. And we’re all committed to the same goal and we’ll work together to achieve it, but we’ll work together to do it in a way that’s good for our businesses as well,” Hillman added.

“We need to create a market for products that are made and created in a way that is consistent with our values,” he said.

The State Department is pushing for a “mining safety alliance” with 13 governments seeking to foster private and public investment in their supply chains of critical minerals.

And European officials have backed a ‘buyers club’ for minerals critical of Group of Seven countries, which could settle some labor legislation and common environmental conditions for suppliers.

Indonesiathe largest producer of nickel world, has floated the idea of ​​working with other resource-rich countries to form an OPEC-like producers association, an arrangement that would attempt to transfer power to suppliers of minerals.

Indonesia has also contacted the United States in recent months to negotiate a deal similar to the one between Japan and the European Union.

Biden administration officials are considering giving Indonesia some form of preferential access, either through a standalone deal or as part of a trade framework the United States is negotiating in the Indo-Pacific region.

But some US officials have warned that Indonesia’s lagging environmental and labor regulations could allow materials into the US that undermine the country’s fledgling mines, as well as their valuables.

Such a deal is also likely to provoke stiff opposition in Congress, where some lawmakers have criticized the Biden administration’s deal with Japan.

Jake Sullivanthe national security adviser referred to these concessions in a speech last month, saying that negotiations with major mineral-producing countries would be needed, but that doing so would raise “difficult questions” about labor practices in those countries and in the broader US environmental goals.

While battery innovations could reduce the need for certain minerals, for now the world faces dramatic long-term shortages, by all counts.

And many officials say the dependence on Europe of Russian energy after the invasion of Ukraine is a good example of the danger of foreign dependencies.

Global demand for these materials has unleashed a wave of resource nationalism that may intensify.

In addition to the US, the EU, Canada and other governments have also created grant programs to better compete for new mines and battery factories.

Indonesia has increased export restrictions on raw nickel, requiring it to be processed in the country first.

kilosa major producer of lithium, it nationalized its lithium industry in an effort to better control the development and exploitation of its resources, just like Bolivia and Mexico.

Chinese companies continue to invest heavily in acquiring mining and refining capacities around the world.

For now, the Biden administration has been reluctant to strike deals with countries that have divergent labor and environmental histories.

Officials are studying changes needed to build U.S. capacity, such as faster permitting processes for mines, as well as closer partnerships with mineral-rich allies like Canada, Australia and Chile.

On Saturday, the White House said it would ask Congress to join in Australia to the list of countries where the Pentagon can finance critical mining projects, a criterion that currently only applies to Canada.

Group of Seven nations, along with countries that have free trade agreements with the United States, produce the 30 percent of the world’s lithium chemicals and about 20 percent of its refined cobalt and nickel, but only one percent of its natural graphite flakes, according to estimates by Adam Megginson, price analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Jennifer Harris, who worked for a Biden White House official helping develop the critical minerals strategy, argued that the country should move faster to develop and enable domestic mines, but that the United States also needs a framework for negotiations between multinationals including countries that are major exporters of minerals.

The government could also establish a program for shop minerals like lithium when prices fall, which would give miners more assurance that they will find recipients for their products, he said.

“There are so many things to do that it’s an ‘all at once’ world,” she said.

“The challenge is that from now on we have to responsibly extract many more rocks from the ground,” he concluded.

c.2023 The New York Times Society