Last week, the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment of Dr. Ned Mamula as Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This week, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity published a report written by Dr. Mamula, which underscores the importance of U.S. domestic mineral production and America’s “unprecedented and dangerous over-reliance on China, Russia, and other dictatorships.”
Dr. Mamula is an expert in critical minerals, serving as the chief geologist with GreenMet, and formerly he worked as a research geologist and minerals specialist at the USGS, where he stewarded important projects like the U.S. Critical Minerals List. He has also written several books on critical minerals and testified in Congress multiple times.
Critical minerals are “being used in larger quantities than ever before across the U.S. economy,” because of telecommunications, energy systems, and the electrification of transportation through battery-powered electric vehicles. The U.S. is 100% net import-reliant for 12 of the 50 critical minerals listed in 22, and more than 50% reliant on imports for another 29 critical minerals. China was the leading source for 24 of those 29 majority-imported minerals.
Dr. Mamula’s report estimates the value of the U.S.’ mineral resources at about $12 trillion, and the mining of those minerals would contribute $1 trillion in revenues to the federal government. The report also estimates that processed minerals and metals contribute about $3.84 trillion to U.S. GDP through downstream industries and sectors, which in 2023 was about 14% of U.S. GDP.
The report identifies several anti-mining domestic policies, including “permitting labyrinths for exploration and mining,” as well as “esnvironmental, regulatory, and legal hurdles and standoffs over land use,” and “land withdrawals and restricted access to mineral-rich lands.” Dr. Mamula also notes “disinformation campaigns by foreign entities against U.S. mining and mineral production.”
Dr. Mamula’s report recommends several solutions, including “overhauling and shortening lengthy permitting processes.” The U.S. could embrace federalism and adopt the most efficient permitting practices of successful mining states like Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, then work to codify those efficiencies into federal law. The report also calls for a renewed focus on import alternatives and rethinking the U.S. stockpile capabilities for critical minerals.
The report recommends “halting unwise withdrawal of mineral-rich federal lands” that prevents exploration for minerals. Federal lands policy matters for exploration, as the U.S. government owns about 28% of the U.S.’ total land mass, and more than 90% of that land is in 12 Western states with world-class mineral deposits. About half of the U.S. federal hardrock minerals are off-limits to development because of land withdrawals, mostly in the Western states.
With Dr. Mamula at the head of the USGS, there’s hope that the agency will “increase the focus on classifying our lands, mapping their geological structure, their energy and mineral wealth, and other endowments within our national domain,” as he stated before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in May. Accurate scientific data from the USGS about the U.S.’ mineral resources is all the more important to securing alternatives to imports from China.