The Hunt for Critical Minerals Can’t Lead the US Astray
China dominates production of several key ingredients of modern militaries and economies. That’s no reason to strong-arm Ukraine, buy Greenland or invade Canada.
Mining in the US is a tough proposition.
Photographer: Joe Buglewicz/BloombergTalk of the US annexing Canada, buying Greenland and strong-arming Ukraine all seems animated by one priority: gaining greater access to critical minerals. If that’s the goal, though, there are clearly better ways to achieve it.
The preoccupation with mineral resources is understandable. China dominates the mining and refining of several raw materials needed to produce key building blocks of modern militaries and economies, from semiconductors to radars and electric-vehicle batteries. Efforts to reshore supply chains have made halting progress: Opening new mines and processing facilities is expensive, time-consuming, environmentally fraught and commercially challenging when Chinese companies can raise or lower production to control prices.