[SteveH]

Potash??

[Mr. N. Wolfe]

I have to admit, Mr. Zinke has been a pleasant surprise. He’s turned out to be a pretty good Secretary of Interior.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Seems one of our brainiacs in the Federal government could have figured this out, say about 1960.
 

[Paladin2]

This has long been an issue with the Feds, especially the DoD.

Many reports over the years on what to do about Strategic materials.

[factoryrat]

I think the idea would be to import as much of these elements as possible from outside sources.

This has two effects. One, we draw down the foreign suppliers, and two, this puts these elements into the domestic scrap/recycling stream.

Primary extraction and refining of these elements is a very expensive and energy intensive process. So, let the chicoms burn out all their resources.

The post consumer scrap stream recycling of these elements is a much energy intensive process. Make the chicoms greed do the heavy lifting.

[Cowboy Bob]

The list includes such valuable metals as aluminum and titanium, as well as uranium, helium, lithium, platinum, potash, and strontium.

Uranium...where have I heard that word before??

[deks]

Hey, how did we actually get smart people into these government positions?!

Ohhhh... “President Trump directed Zinke to conduct a review of the nation’s critical mineral assets and to create a strategy on how to handle vulnerabilities.”

— more winning —

[Revolutionary]

Should lead to more streamlined mining on federal and other lands.

[BeauBo]

It is just good stewardship to stay aware of our weaknesses, and have a plan to protect them.

If we depend on one country (e.g.China) for a critical input (e.g. rare earth minerals) which are essential for a broad category of industry (e.g. magnets for electric vehicles and railguns), then that country could cut us off during war (as China plans), or take over the businesses that use these materials, by denying them to competitors (as China has done).

[taildragger]

While we retool to extract the magic 35 here again in the USA, do you know who is rich in these that can give China a run for their money and they will need our Caterpillar dozers etc to get them going to extract the 6 to 10 Trillion dollars worth they are sitting on?

North Korea....

Let the multi-level chess winning of that sink in for a moment.

[FrdmLvr]

...uranium...

[Deplorable American1776]

Uranium? Hillary Clinton is disappointed...President Hillary would sell those to terroristic nations...

[Bonemaker]

Too late for Hillary’s uranium deal.

[Bonemaker]

Too late for Hillary’s uranium deal.

[fruser1]

Since aluminum is protected, shouldn’t we go back to tin beer cans?

[Albion Wilde]

bump