Key points
- Frank Fannon, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, discusses testifying before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs days earlier on breaking China’s dominance of critical mineral supply chains.
- Fannon says China controls 60 to 90 percent of critical minerals depending on the mineral, and recounts its 2010 rare earth export ban on Japan, which sent prices up 350 percent before Beijing shifted to price dumping.
- Fannon cites his testimony figure that China’s Belt and Road mining investments rose 158 percent in 2023 versus 2022, and notes it can take 29 years to permit a mine in the United States.
- Fannon addresses the Department of the Interior’s move to begin leasing seabed minerals around American Samoa, calling it consistent with executive orders on domestic mining.
