President Trump has faced more than a few controversies with his broad use of executive orders since retaking office in January. It looks like a new issue may be being stirred up with one of his most recent, invoking wartime emergency powers to dramatically increase US mineral output, and also citing the increase in industrial production with those minerals as part of the process.
The Executive Order, signed Thursday, cites Section 301 of the US legal code, and delegates substantial authority to several departments, including the Department of Defense, to prioritize increasing domestic “mineral production” to the maximum possible extent.
The order explicitly cites uranium, gold, copper and potash as minerals to be prioritized for mining purposes. It also empowers the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) to pick out any more minerals they think are also important, some media reports suggest coal would be among those added. They are also to ask miners for ideas to eliminate regulatory “bottlenecks.”
Picking minerals and lifting regulations is just the start. Then, the Secretary of the Interior is to identify all federal lands that have those minerals on them, and then revise land use policy to prioritize mineral production and mining on those lands.
The order includes a requirement that any federal agency giving loans to businesses stop requiring them to comply with Regulation S-K part 1300. This regulation requires disclosures of several factors in a mining operation to qualify for a loan, including whether the company’s business model is economically viable, and whether the mining company has any experience in operating such mines.
Those disclosure requirements are to be ignored under this executive order, so long as the loan is expected to increase domestic mineral production. It also empowers the Secretary of Defense to create a dedicated fund to fund the increase in domestic mineral production.
That gets us to the production of a lot of minerals, apparently with gold and copper a big focus. It doesn’t end there though as the executive order defines mineral production not just as the process of getting the minerals out of the ground, but using them for manufacturing.
The order specifically includes the domestic production of certain derivative goods that are to be counted within, and includes things seemingly unrelated to national security, like smartphones and electric vehicles. Since gold is used in contacts for electronics, it could include nearly anything that the administration wants.
The Small Business Administration is further ordered to submit a plan to enhance financing of new businesses involved in any aspect of mineral production, which includes the manufacturing of final goods as well as intermediaries. It envisions them creating recommendations for legislation that would enhance “private-public capital activities” to this end.
The executive order was quickly and loudly endorsed by the National Mining Association, who declared it as a bold way to counter China in the dominance of global mineral production. The focus on smartphones, semiconductors and electric vehicles is also likely representative of this order being in part about competing with China.
But Canada is clearly also part of this, as the potash production is mentioned quite early in the order. The US imports over 90% of the potash used annually, and the overwhelming majority of that comes from Canada. This has fueled concerns that the Trump tariff plans against Canada could unduly burden American farmers, as there are few alternative international sources for potash anywhere near the size of Canada’s production.
Whether opening up federal land will do anything about that is unclear, but doubtful. The US has relatively little potash to mine, and curbing mining regulations will likely do little to meaningfully increase production. Certainly, that production will not be increased to anywhere near the amount US farmers use annually.
