During a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) spoke about the introduction of a group to keep track of the nation’s mineral security and competitiveness.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I want to thank you for having this hearing as one that's been focused on the issue of
00:06critical minerals and the vulnerability that we have in this country when it comes to being
00:10able to access our own and the increasing reliance on countries like China.
00:16This is a key issue and I'm glad that the committee is taking it up so early.
00:21Mr. Summers, I wanted to start with you.
00:23There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal just a bit ago entitled, Why
00:28the U.S. Keeps Losing to China in the Battle over Critical Minerals.
00:32You may have seen it, but it tells the story of Cera.
00:37This is an Australian company that I have cited this story a fair amount in the Biden
00:46administration because what we saw was hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars that
00:53went to support that, even though they were planning on sourcing the graphite from a
01:00very unstable part of Mozambique.
01:05It is one of those sources of frustration.
01:08You watch this whole project.
01:10Cera goes into force majeure last year, and so everything that the U.S. taxpayer has put
01:17out there is at risk, at jeopardy, and you've got continued unrest in Mozambique.
01:27To me, this was a situation where you had just no common sense when it came to the federal
01:34investment decisions.
01:36Then I will submit to you that we've got some opportunities in our own country to be smart
01:44about our investments, lower risk investments here at home.
01:48My colleagues have heard about the potential for Graphite One, the largest natural graphite
01:53deposit in North America.
01:56We pushed.
01:57We pleaded.
01:58We did everything that we could to raise the profile on this.
02:02We did get support from the Defense Production Act.
02:04That was helpful.
02:06But when it came to the Department of Energy, it was really pretty tough to get any attention
02:11here.
02:13I'm looking at this, and at least with the previous administration, seeing this unwillingness
02:18for the federal government to invest in projects here at home.
02:23My question to you is whether or not you think it would be wise, advisable to have some kind
02:30of a requirement for any federal investments in mineral processing to be tied to the extent
02:38practical to domestically sourced minerals.
02:43We know we're not doing the processing.
02:45We want to bring processing here, but also, it doesn't make sense if we're getting the
02:51raw materials from other countries.
02:53Speak to this, if you would, please.
02:55Absolutely.
02:56I think that that would be a very wise requirement.
02:57Again, in my testimony, I mentioned that just in Utah, we have 40 of the 50 critical minerals
03:02on the DOI list.
03:04You add the graphite that you mentioned in your home state and mineral occurrences in
03:08other U.S. states, there's really very little reason that we need to go outside of the U.S.
03:13to source these minerals.
03:15Again, if we have both the extraction and the processing happening here domestically,
03:20then that really does shore up our supply chain and ensure that we don't have those
03:24economic and national security risks.
03:26I would also say that in many cases, not only are there natural deposits, but in the case
03:30of graphite, for example, there's opportunities.
03:33There are projects right now currently in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that are getting
03:36graphite from coal with off-gassing of hydrogen, which can be used for electricity generation.
03:43There's many opportunities for us to be innovative as well and not rely on unstable countries
03:48in order to extract the raw resources.
03:51Thank you for that.
03:52Let me ask a question of you, Mr. Haddock.
03:55In your written testimony, you've briefly mentioned the Bureau of Mines.
04:00This was abolished back in the 90s.
04:04He didn't specifically call for its resurrection, but given the importance of what we're talking
04:09about here today, it's something that I've certainly thought about.
04:14We've got a Department of Energy.
04:18Maybe we want a Bureau of Mines to look at our mineral security and our competitiveness.
04:25What do you think about the idea of what would a modern Bureau of Mines look like?
04:29What functions would they be responsible for?
04:33Thank you, Senator.
04:34That's a great question.
04:36In my mind, as I was looking at these critical minerals bills, and everybody was talking
04:40about all the coordination between all these various agencies, and this agency could do
04:44this and that.
04:46It just felt like there is a need for centralization here.
04:50Also, one of the things that I've talked about before and I've advocated is there needs to
04:54be a knowledge base of as private explorers are out working, we need to find a way to
05:00be able to share the information that's critical to knowing where these byproduct minerals
05:05are in small concentrations.
05:10I don't know exactly what it would look like, but I certainly know in a business world,
05:16you would create a focus on that with a small group of people with the right expertise and
05:23focus on those very narrow questions.
05:26Thank you for that.
05:27That might be something that the committee would want to explore, Mr. Chairman.
05:32We're trying to eliminate a lot of bureaucracy nowadays, but when you're focusing in an area
05:41as significant as this for our entire economy, it seems to me that we might want to give
05:46a little more definition.
05:49Certainly something that I'd love to work with you all on.
05:52Appreciate all of you being here.