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The US could break its dependence on China for many critical minerals if metals found in the waste from existing American mines were used rather than discarded, new research has found.
The US is among a growing number of countries racing to secure more independent supplies of metals including copper, lithium and nickel — which are essential for a broad range of industries, from energy to technology and defence.
China has invested heavily in the sector for two decades and dominates the supply chains for many critical minerals.
That dominance contributed to the Trump administration’s imposition of hefty tariffs on a range of Chinese products in a bid to encourage domestic US supply chains.
The paper, published in the journal Science on Thursday by researchers at the Colorado School of Mines, said that the US could supply most of its metals needs if it made better use of mining waste.
“The US’ vulnerable supply of critical minerals is not a function of domestic geological availability,” they said. Recovering even small quantities of the byproducts “would substantially reduce net import reliance for most critical minerals,” said the researchers.
The waste from the 54 mining operations active in the US were likely to be rich in many of the critical minerals needed by the country’s industrial sector, they added.
Their analysis found that recovering some of the metals that occur as byproducts at active mines, combined with existing production, could be “sufficient to meet US manufacturing demand for copper, iron, molybdenum, silver, nickel, zinc and [rare earths].”
Making better use of these waste products could prove difficult, however, since the researchers noted that “a lot more research, development and policy” was needed to make it “economically feasible”.
Other nations including Australia, Canada and the EU are also trying to wean themselves off a heavy dependency on Chinese metals with plans that include investing in domestic mining or stockpiling material.
Thursday’s analysis drew on geologic data from the US, Australian and Canadian Geological Surveys, among other sources.
Rare earth elements, which are essential for the production of magnets, have drawn particular attention in recent months following a temporary Chinese export ban on the materials that upended the global supply chain.
Despite their name, these metals are not especially rare but are often not economic to extract, with many mined as byproducts of other minerals.
The amount of critical minerals that currently end up as US mining waste could “exceed US imports and US manufacturing demand for most elements,” the researchers said.
For 15 elements — including rare earths, gallium and germanium — recovering less than 1 per cent of the potential byproducts found in mines across the US would be enough to replace imports, they found.
For another 11, including the battery metal lithium, recovery of between 1 and 10 per cent would be needed to replace imports, they said.
“US metal mines already have sufficient mineral endowment to substantially reduce the nation’s mineral [deficit],” they said. “Unrecovered, these byproducts contribute to the country’s growing industrial waste.”