During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing last week, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL) spoke about improving the permitting process for critical mineral mining and refining sites.
00:01The chair now recognizes himself for five minutes for questions.
00:05Ms. Hunter, you said something at the very beginning that caught my attention
00:09about China's strategic leveraging and the bottleneck that's been created.
00:17We've got access to rare thermos here in the United States and critical minerals.
00:23We have the seventh most known reserves.
00:29So it's not a matter of having them, it's what we're able to do with them once we get them.
00:37So would you like to comment on that?
00:40Ms. We do have great progress, especially on the light rare earths domestically.
00:44That's something that's a bright spot.
00:46But until we can separate them, turn them into metal,
00:49things that are happening in the states that have been represented today,
00:52then ultimately we can't use them in the permanent magnets or robotics systems,
00:57defense applications or energy solutions that we want to.
01:01So separation, metallization are key.
01:05It's been mentioned that we could get rare earth elements from recycling products.
01:10I think we get about 18% of our antimony from recycled car batteries.
01:15We can recycle hard drives, computer equipment.
01:19There's waste that we can recycle.
01:22And when I say that, we're talking about mine tailings and coal ash, things like that.
01:30Would that be sufficient to meet our needs, particularly in regard to our national security?
01:36So defense demand for these materials is substantially smaller than commercial demand.
01:40Without having the numbers, and I can follow up with your staff to validate,
01:44we could make great progress using all forms of alternatives.
01:47Another way is to decrease demand for some commercial applications through alternative abundant source,
01:53non-rare earth magnets in certain applications.
01:56And definitely leveraging full value mining as much as we can.
01:59But that reduces the quality of the product.
02:02But so use it in specific applications, so not for defense applications,
02:06so that we can then leverage the higher quality and qualified material
02:11for the defense applications in certain instances.
02:13So we have to yes and all of it.
02:15If you look at it in the context of economic security runs parallel with national security,
02:21I don't think we can supply our needs just through recycling.
02:25But I do think recycling is a viable solution.
02:30Ms. Sweeney, when we talk about mining, right now,
02:3495% of the rare concentrates that we produce in the United States are being exported to China for processing.
02:41And one of the points that I've made to the Trump administration is that the day we permit the mine,
02:46we need to permit the processing and the smelting and refining.
02:50So comment on the importance of a collaborative effort to get all this done almost simultaneously.
02:57And that doesn't mean if we start today, we'll have it tomorrow.
03:00I work for two international engineering companies, have a pretty good idea of how long it takes to build something.
03:06You know, it's really important to scale up the mining and the processing together that has to be coordinated to really secure our supply chains.
03:18China has been able to do just that in their investments around the world and in their own country.
03:26And they get the value, the value add of the processing, and that's something we're missing out.
03:33And we import $171 billion worth of refined minerals last year alone.
03:43Well, that's something Mr. Hergott mentioned in his written testimony that we're stalling over a trillion dollars in U.S. infrastructure investment.
03:51And there's that, the extension of what it does for the economy when you have this.
03:59And it's not just the mine or the processor or the smelter or the refiner.
04:04There are other industries that are involved in that.
04:08And it's not just federal permitting, Mr. Hergott.
04:11There are other state and local governments that are involved.
04:18Talk a little bit about how we need to address this, because I do think this is not only an economic security issue, it is a pressing national security issue.
04:30Microphone, please.
04:32Where there is a federal interest, because it's entirely supported by the private sector, these backbone industries,
04:39the fact that the neodium that is in your microphone, we give to China at a dollar, they sell it back to us at $500.
04:47And even as of this month, the architect of the capital is going to ask for a waiver to buy more from China for our own hearing room.
04:53I just noticed I'm so short on time.
04:56I have another question I want to ask you specifically.
05:03I think that's an enormous opportunity for the United States if we will act to build these capacities ourselves.
05:09Could you comment on that?
05:10Yeah, very quickly.
05:11The Trump executive order is happening right at the same time that this window is opening up with China that will have a 10 to 1 impact on any money that was produced by the IRA,
05:21because that certainty is multiplied by the investment that is pouring into the United States that then has a multiplier effect of state and local income and the induced labor.
05:30So this is the window to do it.
05:33They are retooling and refabricating.
05:35They're processing, refinement, separating, and metallurgic processes that they built 20 years ago to beat us the first time.
05:42They can't reach the purity levels to meet the AI, the semiconductor.
05:45And as I mentioned before, it's going to take them five, six years to do that because I spent too much money developing dirty extraction processes in Mozambique and Indonesia and elsewhere.
05:54This is the window to do it.
05:56I thank the gentleman.
05:59Just as a comment, I really do believe this is a bipartisan issue, and I think everybody on this subcommittee and the full committee takes this very seriously.
06:08So I look forward to working with my colleagues.
06:10Seeing there's no further members wishing to ask questions, I would like to thank our witnesses again for being here today.
06:15I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record of the document included on the staff hearing documents list.
06:21Without objection, that will be the order.
06:24Pursuant to committee rules, I remind members that they have 10 business days to submit additional questions for the record
06:30and ask that the witnesses submit their response within 10 business days upon receipt of the questions.
06:35Without objection, the subcommittee is adjourned.
