During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke about how the Biden administration cancelled a mining lease for the Twin Metals Mine in Minnesota.
00:03Mr. Woodward, now is the time to encourage American businesses to enter the Africa market
00:09and to create long-lasting joint ventures.
00:12The process of critical mineral extraction, processing, refining, and manufacturing is complex.
00:17I frequently meet with companies who seek to establish a direct link between Africa and Texas
00:24to onshore our rare earth mineral supply chain and effectively cut out China.
00:29Texas can help fuel Africa's energy need to supply rare earth mineral extraction.
00:36Houston, Texas, and Luanda, Angola are sister cities, which strategically positions Texas
00:43to spearhead business investments supporting the libido corridor.
00:48Texas is prepared to be the home for scalable, refining solutions for rare earth minerals.
00:55This requires proactive U.S. engagement to de-risk overseas investment in Africa, to promote partnership, and to pull Africa away from China.
01:05What is the department doing right now to work with U.S. companies and to help get more deals off the ground?
01:12Thank you, sir. That's something that we work on every day.
01:19I think one successful example that I would point to would be Mozambique, where there is a graphite mine that has gotten support from the DFC.
01:31That graphite is being sent to Louisiana, right next door to Texas, for refining.
01:43A few months ago, and that all came to be because of U.S. support.
01:49Quite frankly, that deal would never have happened without the U.S. government being involved and without DFC supporting that.
01:54A few months back, there was trouble at the mine, and our embassy there worked with other like-minded embassies to approach the Mozambican government
02:05to get the security required to clear away some protestors who had tried to kind of block the mine for various reasons,
02:14some of whom we think were supported by China, perhaps.
02:17And so that's one example of how, you know, we often get in the weeds with some of these companies, helping them achieve their goals.
02:26In the DRC, a few months back, there's a tin mine near Goma, and it was kind of overrun by the M23 rebels backed by Rwanda.
02:40Our ambassador in Kinshasa, Ambassador Tamlin, worked with the President's Special Representative Boulos to engage with actors in the region,
02:49President Sekedi in Kinshasa, President Kagame in Rwanda.
02:54They created the conditions to get the rebels to back off of that tin mine, which was owned by a U.S. outfit at the time,
03:02and it produced about 8% of the world's tin supply, which is critical, especially because we don't have tin here in the United States at all.
03:10And that's, again, another example of how our diplomats and folks out in the field are engaging right alongside American companies
03:17to ensure that we can improve supply chains.
03:21We're also working to bring more and more potential deals to our public finance institutions like DFC and EXIM
03:29to try to get them the support they need because, as we pointed out, these deals are risky.
03:34They're very difficult, and they require a lot of work and effort.
03:37And, you know, DFC and EXIM are up for reauthorization soon.
03:42We hope that Congress will support them in that and allow them to engage more effectively by adopting higher levels of risk
03:50because right now their requirements often prevent them from supporting projects that demonstrate too much risk,
03:59but the sector is risky.
04:01And if we want to secure the pathways for these minerals to the United States,
04:06we're going to have to be supportive of these companies and these projects,
04:10and I think DFC and EXIM offer an excellent way that the U.S. government can support many of these projects.
04:15Ambassador Pratt, in the last Africa subcommittee hearing I questioned your predecessor, Ambassador Fitrell,
04:23about how Biden canceled mineral leases for Twin Metals Mine in Minnesota
04:33Blocking domestic mineral mining only reinforces our reliance on overseas critical mineral supply chains,
04:39something you've repeatedly said that China dominates.
04:42Less than one percent of global rare earth refining happens in the United States,
04:48with most American mine materials sent to China for processing.
04:53President Trump's executive order to boost American mineral production set us on the right path,
04:59as we've seen with the latest MP materials and Defense Department multi-billion dollar deal announced this month.
05:06But that's only the start, and there's much more work to be done.
05:09The U.S. should boost its Africa partnerships and pave the way for new critical mineral deals
05:16that push China out and de-link our supply chains for good.
05:20Please describe for us how the Department of State is working with our international partners across Africa
05:26and with U.S. companies together to broker partnerships to build a direct supply chain of critical minerals from Africa to the United States.
05:39Thank you very much, Senator.
05:41We have worked directly with our international partners, especially the G7, on projects like the Libido Corridor.
05:49I was involved in those discussions.
05:52We are also working directly with African governments on deals that are part of our strategy right now toward Africa.
06:00And some of my colleagues who are sitting behind me here today are working feverishly on that strategy
06:05to ensure that we get the access that we need and finalize deals for American companies so that the minerals are flowing toward the U.S. in terms of refining.
06:16On rare earths, on lithium, on cobalt, we believe that all of these should be secured for U.S. companies
06:26and directed ultimately toward U.S. refining capacity.
