President Donald Trump has plans to set up metal refining facilities on the sites of U.S. military bases in a bid to increase domestic production of critical minerals, reducing reliance on China.
The idea will be included in an executive order that could be signed as early as Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources as saying the Pentagon would be directed to work with other federal agencies to build the processing facilities.
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The report also cited Trump’s speech to Congress from last week, in which the president said that he will “take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA.”
Setting up refining facilities on military bases would speed up the process to boosting domestic supply because it would eliminate the risk of local community opposition to such operations, which is always present elsewhere in the country. The Pentagon controls some 30 million acres of land, per Reuters. The report did mention that such facilities could still encounter challenges stemming from the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
The Reuters sources also said that the president had no plans to establish a strategic reserve of metals modeled on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or apply the “Buy American” mandate to the Pentagon’s or any other federal agency’s procurement practices.
Demand for critical minerals is seen by most forecasters as booming in the near to long term, mostly on the back of the energy transition. Driven by that transition, demand for critical minerals is seen rising twofold by 2040, with the size of the critical mineral market also rising, from $325 billion in 2023 to some $770 billion in 2040. President Trump has made it crystal clear he is not interested in the transition but critical minerals are also used in weapons and military equipment, which makes their supply a national security issue.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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