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For Your Information United States-Canada Critical Minerals CooperationAs part of Executive Order 14017 on America's Supply Chains, issued on February 23, the "100-Day Supply Chain Review" was published by the White House in June. This led to the formation of the U.S.-Canada Critical Minerals Working Group that held its third meeting on July 28, co-chaired by U.S. Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Laura Lochman, and Assistant Deputy Minister of the Land and Minerals Sector of Natural Resources Canada, Jeff Labonté. A July 31 media communication on the U.S. Department of State's website, entitled "United States and Canada Forge Ahead on Critical Minerals Cooperation," notes the following: "The working group discussed implementation of President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau's commitment to strengthen cooperation on critical minerals supply chains as outlined in the Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership. ... They also shared perspectives on strengthening supply chains that utilize critical minerals, and reviewed President Biden's Executive Order on America's Supply Chains and the related 100-day supply chain review of critical minerals and materials and other key sectors issued in June."[1] When the U.S. State Department refers to "strengthening supply chains" it has in mind, amongst other things, what Marc D. Gietter, a retired industrial engineer with the Tactical Shelters Branch of the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) termed "priming the pump." In an article entitled "Viewpoint: Offshore Battery Production Poses Problems for Military," published in the November 8, 2018 issue of the U.S. magazine National Defense, he writes: "Lithium batteries -- both rechargeable and non rechargeable -- have become ubiquitous in almost every weapon system used by the Defense Department. Although it is a relatively small consumer of lithium battery technologies when compared to the commercial market, the importance of these technologies cannot be understated. "Just about every piece of man-portable electronic equipment crucial to the success of U.S. warfighters on the battlefield is powered by some form of lithium battery. The reliance on them is expected to grow exponentially as the next generation of weapons -- such as new tactical ground vehicles, unmanned systems and directed energy weapons -- are designed around the high energy density and low weight of a lithium battery technology. [...] "The lithium-ion battery market, alone, is expected to reach $26 billion in less than 10 years. With electric vehicles, clean energy storage and mobile electronics requiring ever-more advanced batteries, the overall market for batteries is only just emerging, and is expected to reach $150 billion in just the next two years. "With a relatively minimal investment the Defense Department can not only secure domestic sources for critical technologies, but 'prime the pump' to enable these same suppliers to capture and hold large international market shares. For example, the Defense Logistics Agency has procured batteries with a total value of more than $1.1 billion to support the military power source supply chain. "This does not include batteries that each of the services buy directly from vendors and manufacturers, or batteries purchased by prime contractors to integrate into various weapon systems."[2] In other words, the role of the U.S. Defense Department is to enable these same private suppliers of critical minerals "to capture and hold large international market shares" by developing processing facilities and advanced manufacturing here within North America, countering what the U.S. Department of Defense calls the "decreasing role of defense in driving commercial lithium battery markets." This is why, in the case of permanent rare earth magnets used for civil and military applications, there is presently a bill before the U.S. House of Representatives (Bill HR 5033 -- Rare Earth Magnet Manufacturing Production Tax Credit Act of 2021) that would give private companies tax credits of $20 per kilogram for magnets manufactured in the United States or $30 per kilogram for magnets that are both manufactured in the U.S. and for which all components made up of rare earth material are produced and recycled or reclaimed wholly within the United States. It also means that to be eligible for these subsidies, the rare earth magnets must not include any "component rare earth material" that was "produced in a non-allied foreign nation," meaning countries opposed to U.S. imperialist world domination, such as the "Russian Federation, People's Republic of China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Islamic Republic of Iran."[3] The "component rare earth material" refers to six rare earth elements (REE) known as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium, samarium, and gadolinium, along with cobalt. These are the primary REEs used to manufacture the world's two most powerful permanent magnets, known as samarium cobalt magnets and neodymium-iron-boron magnets. Their applications are numerous and diverse -- from electric vehicles to radar, precision-guided missiles and "smart bombs."[4] Notes1. United States and Canada Forge Ahead on Critical Minerals Cooperation, U.S. Department of State, July 31, 2021. 2. "Viewpoint: Offshore Battery Production Poses Problems for Military," in National Defense, November 8, 2018. 3. Bill
HR
5033, Rare Earth Magnet Manufacturing
Production Tax
Credit Act of 2021, U.S. House of
Representatives,
Washington, DC, 2021. 4. Rare Earth Elements in National Defense: Background, Oversight Issues, and Options for Congress, Valerie Bailey Grasso, Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC, December 23, 2013.
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