President Joe Biden will host a virtual meeting with senior administration officials and key industry executives at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the administration’s efforts to address semiconductor supply chain problems.
During the meeting, the president will announce a $35 million federal contract with MP Materials for the collection and processing of critical earth minerals at the company’s facility in Mountain Pass, California.
White House officials say the contract, awarded through the Pentagon’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program, will help with “establishing a full end-to-end domestic permanent magnet supply chain.” Those minerals are used in weapons systems, green energy technology, electric vehicles, and nearly all other modern electronics, and China controls nearly 90% of the global market.
As part of its bid, MP Materials also pledged to invest an additional $700 million to expand the program over the next two years, which the administration estimates will create more than 350 jobs.
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Representatives for Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables and Redwood Materials will also take part in the meeting. BHE President and CEO Alicia Knapp is expected to announce that the company will break ground on a new facility in Imperial County, California, in conjunction with the company’s “sustainable” lithium extraction process. Lithium is a key component in electric vehicle batteries, and the Imperial Valley is home to one of the largest lithium deposits in the world.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who alongside Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been the face of the administration’s EV push, will also give an update on billions worth of new funding in Biden’s bipartisan trillion-dollar infrastructure law for the refinement of recycling rare earth minerals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite.
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White House officials believe these programs will boost domestic mineral supply without the need to launch new mining projects and will create “good-paying clean energy manufacturing jobs.”
