New environmental regulations and unfilled mining stockpiles have put communist China at the top of the list of exporters the Pentagon and defense contractors look to for supplies of critical metals and minerals needed to make weaponry, according to a shocking new study.
The report from the American Resources Policy Network found that China supplies 43 percent of the minerals like lithium and bismuth the U.S. national security industry is 90 to 100 percent dependent on foreign suppliers for. Worse: The U.S. is at least 50 percent dependent on foreign suppliers for 43 key minerals, more than America’s dependence on foreign oil.
The reasons, said the group: The administration’s environmental regulations are putting many critical materials off-limits to mining, and the Clinton-Bush-Obama administrations have let the National Defense Stockpile inventories go dry.
“Some form of stockpiling is needed,” urged retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert Latiff, an intelligence expert at a conference hosted by the group on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
“The elephant in the room is China,” said the report, provided to Secrets. “The United States relies to a disproportionately high degree on mineral imports from China, accounting for 22 percent of mineral imports.”
And China’s not the only worry. The report found that seven of 20 major foreign suppliers are “mostly unfree,” according to the Heritage Foundation Wall Street Journal 2012 index of economic freedom.
The group recommends that the administration reverse course and open up public lands to mining for strategic materials and build reserves. “U.S. important dependence is largely self-inflicted,” said the group.
“The U.S. government desperately needs a coherent national mineral access strategy,” said Daniel McGroarty, President of the American Resources Policy Network. “We are acutely dependent on foreign supplies of non-fuel minerals and metals that are vital to commercial manufacturing and advanced weapons systems. Our exposure to potential supply disruptions is a profound national security threat.”
