Biden Says US Will Compete With China on Strategic Minerals. He Just Kneecapped Our Ability To Do So.

The Biden administration issued a 20-year mining ban in a Minnesota area that contains much of America’s strategic minerals, a move that critics say kneecaps the administration’s ability to curb China’s dominant control over those minerals.

Biden’s secretary of the interior Deb Haaland on Thursday signed a two-decade moratorium on mining in northern Minnesota’s Superior National Forest. The area contains a mineral deposit that is home to 95 percent of the nation’s nickel reserves and 88 percent of its cobalt, according to Twin Metals Minnesota, a company that was permitted to mine in the area until the Biden administration canceled its permits in January. Both of those minerals are crucial to the green energy supply chain, which China dominates. Nickel, for example, is used in electric vehicle batteries, while cobalt is needed for wind turbines.

The Biden administration has long promised it will compete with China by “revitalizing … domestic manufacturing” and “securing the country’s most critical supply chains.” Its Thursday mining decision, however, severely inhibits its ability to fulfill that promise. Beyond the Superior National Forest’s abundance of nickel and cobalt, the area is home to large deposits of copper and platinum, both of which play a large role in green energy generation and chip manufacturing.- READ MORE