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Beskrivelse
Minerals are important because they are the building blocks of our modern society, from the smallest computer chips to the tallest skyscrapers and just about everything in-between. Minerals are fundamental to fracking, MRI machines, and jet engines. The homes that we live in, the food we eat, the cars we drive, and the computers we use, all depend on minerals. Almost every product in our nation is made from, or uses, minerals, yet more and more these minerals are now being produced somewhere else. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), we imported at least 50 percent of our supply of 50 different minerals, including 100 percent of our supply of 20 of them, just last year in 2016. That is a major increase from our foreign dependence levels in 1978 when this data was first collected, and it suggests that we are on the verge of replacing our dependence on foreign oil with an equally, if not even more damaging, dependence on foreign minerals. Rare earth elements are perhaps the best-known example. With the Mountain Pass Mine in California now closed, we once again import 100 percent of our supply of rare earths, exposing us to potential supply shortages and price volatility while reducing our international leverage and attractiveness for manufacturing. It is the same story with graphite, palladium, indium, manganese, niobium and many others. Our foreign mineral dependence is a threat to our ability to create jobs in this country. It limits our growth, our competitiveness, and our national security.
