Pub. 8 2018 Issue 1

8 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY the U.S. being increasingly dependent on foreign sources of strategic and critical minerals. This vulnerability has serious national defense and economic consequences. According to the U.S Geological Survey, the U.S. is greater than 50% reliant upon foreign countries for 30 different metals and minerals and 100% import reliant for an additional 21 minerals, despite having the third largest mineral wealth in the world. Our mineral dependency is at a record high, double what is was 20 years ago. Today, less than one-half of the mineral needs of U.S. manufacturing are met from domestically mined resources. Importantly, the Federal Government is now taking steps to ensure we have a domestic supply of the minerals our society needs. In December, President Trump issued Executive Order 13817, “A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals,” which declares that it “shall be the policy of the Federal Government to reduce the Nation’s vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals, which constitutes a strategic vulnerability for the security and prosperity of the United States.” The Executive Order focuses on the need to “increase private- sector domestic exploration, production, recycling, and reprocessing of critical minerals. [to] reduce our dependence on imports, preserve our leadership in technological innovation, support job creation, improve our national security and balance of trade, and enhance the technological superiority and readiness of our Armed Forces....” Executive Order 13817 directs the Secretary of the Interior, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense and other departments and agencies, to develop and publish a list of critical minerals. The preliminary list, published in February, identified 35 mineral commodities as critical. That is an important first step, but there are many minerals of vital importance to our economic and national security that are absent from the list. For example, copper, silver, gold, lead, zinc, phosphate and other minerals are indispensable to our infrastructure and are essential components of consumer products, military and defense equipment, numerous manufacturing sectors, medical applications and other uses. The availability of minerals with widespread uses in infrastructure, manufacturing, and consumer products is an issue of national importance because shortages of these minerals would create serious economic disruptions that would have a ripple effect throughout our economy. On the legislative side, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) is sponsoring the “National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act (H.R. 520), which addresses permitting inefficiencies at the PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE continued from page 7