Encouraging Signs on the Strategic Minerals Front

The Department of Interior has recently released their 2025 draft list of minerals deemed most vital to American national interests, the economy, and our defense.  The list is accompanied with a report containing a new methodological model determining how mineral supply chain complications affect our national interests and thus, why the selected minerals are on the list. Minerals include everything from gold, aluminum and antimony to germanium, tin, and zinc. In addition, potash, silicon, copper, silver, rhenium, and lead have all been recommended for the 2025 update.

This release follows on other recent moves by the Trump Administration focused on the value of key minerals. In July, it was announced that the Dept. of Defense had entered a public-private partnership with Rare Earth Element (REE) processor MP Materials – the only U.S. domestic rare earth element mining company currently in operation.  This particular deal was established with the aim of assuring an accessible, ready, and home-based supply of REEs, which are becoming increasingly important to our national security and defense requirements. With growing concerns about our ability to source REEs from competitor nations like China or dicey parts of the world (this is an issue that I’ve commented on in the past) the imperative to rebuild our own production capability is beyond clear. 

Speaking candidly, I am overjoyed to see these policy moves finally being designed, enacted, and executed in earnest. In addition to other issues, the covid-19 pandemic illuminated our weakened exposure in key industrial areas, and how stretched – and ultimately fragile, and sometimes breakable – these global supply chains are. And while policymakers in DC have “talked the talk” on these subjects for quite some time, it is refreshing to see the nation’s political leadership “walk the walk” and actually implement real actions and reforms to make measurable headway toward a necessary outcome on these consequential issues.

The need for this kind of thinking is not just timely – but it is long overdue. Numerous grinding and exhausting business challenges over the past several post-pandemic years – from ongoing economic disruption and record inflation to skilled labor gaps, and artificial shortages – have twisted and frustrated the space and defense industries. The problems were in fact so great that the Dept. of Defense created a $1 billion reserve fund for industry partners to use when they were squeezed by exorbitantly high inflation, particularly when performing on firm, fixed-price contracts.  Our own company – in the business of developing key platforms for priority NASA programs – experienced soaring price hikes on raw materials, elevating the costs of production by several hundred percent. Fast forward to now, these policy steps toward certainty and stability in strategic materials moving forward are more than welcome.

Most importantly, it is in these areas where sound policy from DC comes into play. While it is largely up to business owners, executives, and managers to navigate the free market, bad economic and industrial policy emanating from Washington can make things a lot more difficult than they should be. And when it comes to our national defense and space priorities (even civil space plays a key role in perceptions of America on the world stage, as well as our overall global leadership and standing), bad policy decisions can have highly debilitating effects; these are the areas, in fact, where we expect our national leaders to maintain the most sober levels of judgement.   

Frankly, there is no compelling reason to not make better use of our own resources – and these recent policy efforts represent concrete steps in the right direction towards better national preparedness, resilience, self-sufficiency, and in the end, self-protection. From the domain of space to active battlefields abroad, the world continues to see rapid change – all of which has serious, if not existential, implications for everything from how we defend the country to how we remain competitive economically. These new moves to shore up our strategic mineral base are encouraging – and I’m glad to see it.

Grant Anderson is the co-founder and Chief Innovator of Paragon Space Development Corporation. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering from Stanford University.