Post by
Allman on Dec 21, 2024 1:29pm
Leveraging the Defense Production Act to Stockpile Minerals
... Since the U.S. relies heavily on China for these minerals, China’s new export ban could delay the manufacture of defense platforms and munitions, exacerbating already depleted defense stocks and further undermining America’s warfighting capabilities. The United States depends greatly on China for other minerals, too. For example, for minerals in which the U.S. is more than 50% net import reliant, China—the Pentagon’s “pacing challenge”—is the leading import source for 24 minerals. Critically, China could ban exports of these other minerals, such as bismuth (used in defense alloys)
... the Trump Administration could use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to build a separate mineral stockpile that can function outside of national emergencies and war. This stockpile would be capable of not only selling minerals to the defense industrial base amid supply shortages but also acquiring minerals from domestic mineral producers to incentivize domestic production.
... This DPA inventory should contain minerals currently used by the defense industrial base, including minerals already in the National Defense Stockpile, as well as those excluded from it, including copper and bismuth.
... Just as the Eisenhower Administration stockpiled minerals using DPA funds during the Cold War, the incoming Trump Administration could justifiably do the same amid the U.S.-China mineral war. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/12/20/leveraging-the-defense-production-act-to-stockpile-minerals/
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