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Donald Trump has called on military forces as part of ordinary efforts to increase the production of US minerals and prevent China’s suspicion of critical resources.
The president signed an executive order on Thursday that focuses the use of the law on defense production to mobilize industry and expand domestic minerals to produce national security grounds.
The order also orders the government to direct the permitted project and to provide loans to strengthen the domestic mining industry.
Speaking from the White House on Thursday, Trump He said the order “will dramatically increase the production of critical minerals and rare countries”.
The Directive, which was scheduled for Trump’s address to Congress this month, comes as part of the president’s widespread pressure to wage the US reliance on China, which dominates the supply chains for many of the critical minerals that Western governments race to secure.
The Trump administration has already entered into talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo to access its minerals and the president’s threats to Greenland’s annex are guided by the desire to use its rare country.
Trump said on Thursday that a delayed agreement to gain access to Ukrainian minerals would be signed “very short”.
“It’s a big deal in this country and as you know, we also sign contracts at different locations to unlock rare land and minerals and many other things around the world, but especially Ukraine,” he said.
The president spoke before the signing of a long -standing executive order to “start eliminating” the US Department of Education.
The United States is the main importer of metals, including copper and aluminum, which have a wide range of use, from construction to energy and technology, as well as lesser known, such as rare countries used in the defense and automotive sectors.
The order Thursday directs federal agencies to collect a list of projects awaiting “in order to accelerate (their) review and progress”, according to a White House official. It will also allow federal countries to prioritize mining over other purposes and provide loans for new projects through the US International Development Corporation.
Calling the Law on Defense Production, adopted in 1950 after the outbreak of the Korean War, the president could mobilize the domestic industry to provide materials that are considered key to national defense.
Trump has previously indicated that the law is Anti-business But he called him repeatedly in his first term. After pressure from lawmakers and healthcare, he used it to accelerate the production of fans and personal protective equipment in March 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, but was criticized for not using its powers earlier.
Former President Oeo Biden also called on the law on several occasions, including to resolve a shortage of shortage Formula for newborns And increase the extraction of minerals that are crucial to the transition to green energy.
The announcement was welcomed by the American mining industry. Rich Nolan, president of the National Mining Association, said he acknowledged that industry enlargement had become “imperative for national security”.
“By encouraging rationalized and transparent allowing processes, combined with funding support to counter the manipulation of the foreign market, we can finally challenge the Chinese extortion of minerals,” he said.
China has a dominant position in many minerals supply chains. Even when China does not dominate metal mining, it is often a great processing player – as with lithium, used in batteries.
The United States imports about 80 % of aluminum needs, many of which comes from Canada, according to JPMorgan. It also imports almost half of the copper it consumes, according to Ing Bank.
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