Us Seeks' Mining Partners' To Decouple From China

The United States and key partners Canada, Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, The Republic of Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom have established a Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) to strengthen key mineral supply chains, the US State Department announced in Toronto on Thursday. Secure the supply of key minerals essential for clean energy and other technologies.

表面上的上下文之间的冲突Russia and Ukraine, the US has recently raised concerns about Its dependence on China for a key mineral, antimony. The US has been almost entirely dependent on China and, to a lesser extent, Russia in recent years for antimony, a key mineral that is crucial for ammunition production, defense News reported On Wednesday. Between 2011 and 2015, China produced 75 to 83 percent of the world's raw material antimony, voice of America reported On Thursday. By 2021, China will remain the world's leading producer of antimony, accounting for 55 percent of global mine output, partly because of the high costs of domestic extractive industries and stringent environmental standards. Members of Congress from both parties are taking legislative action to try to address America's over-reliance on Chinese antimony.

According to Defense News, the House Armed Services Committee has been seeking to strengthen defense rare earth mineral reserves critical to the defense industry's supply chain in the NATIONAL Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023. The committee on Wednesday for the first time included measures to help reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese antimony in its draft national Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023.

A report accompanying the bill asks the head of the U.S. Defense Reserve to brief the committee on antimony by October, along with a five-year outlook on the minerals and current and future supply chain vulnerabilities. The draft also calls for the Defense Department to develop a policy for recycling spent batteries to recycle "precious metals, rare earth minerals, and strategic elements, such as cobalt and lithium, into the U.S. supply chain or strategic reserves." The United States also needs to strengthen cooperation with Central Asia, especially antimony suppliers Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, to secure deposits, VOICE of America quoted experts as saying.

In fact, this step has been planned by the US side for a long time. Since the Biden administration took office, the United States has undertaken a review of its domestic supply chain of key minerals and raw materials, and in June last year for the first time issued a report claiming that, globally, China controls most of the processing and refining markets for cobalt, lithium, rare earths and other key minerals. It has been trying to reduce its dependence on Chinese products by working with Allies and strengthening local processing capabilities.