The United States and its allies are weighing the rapid reopening of long-abandoned mines to rebuild secure supply chains.
Boarded-up mines across the world are rusting symbols of how China seized the world’s critical minerals supply chain.
Now, some of these mines—closed not because they ran dry, but because of Beijing’s oversupply and price dumping—could be reopened as the Trump administration rallies nations to overthrow China’s supply chain dominance.
Getting a new mine up and running can take up to 15 years. So mothballed mines could provide a timely stopgap, according to industry experts.
However, digging out the minerals is only half the challenge. When the United States and the broader Western world abandoned their mines, they also abandoned the race for the all-important extraction process.
Arizona-based mining automation consultant Avadh Nagaralawala said reopening mines is “a tempting shortcut.”
“The ore bodies are proven, some infrastructure remains, and timelines can be shorter than starting from scratch,” he told The Epoch Times via email.
Such projects also “carry powerful symbolism,” Nagaralawala said.
He noted that many sites closed because of declining grades, high operating costs, and local resistance to pollution.
“The hard truth remains: The West wants more minerals but fewer mines in its own backyard,” he said.
Rare-earth elements, a group of 17 metals crucial to everything from permanent magnets in wind turbines to electric vehicle motors, are hard to extract and even tougher to process.
Much of the essential refining technology and know-how now lies in China’s hands, along with the all-important supply chains.
The same pressures apply to other critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and copper, which underpin battery production and much of the modern electricity system.
Over the past few months, the trade war between the United States and China brought the issue of Beijing’s control of critical minerals to a head.
In October, the Trump administration announced critical mineral deals worth more than $10 billion with Australia, Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand to strengthen allied supply chains.
President Donald Trump also recently said the United States would end its reliance on China for rare-earth minerals within 18 months under an “emergency program.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Nov. 1 that China had “made a real mistake” by threatening to curb exports, which spurred the United States and its allies to fast-track new sources.
On Nov. 6, the administration added 10 minerals, including copper and metallurgical coal, to its list of materials vital to national security.
Brussels is not sitting idly by, either. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Oct. 25 that the bloc will unveil a new plan by year-end to diversify Europe’s mineral supply away from China.
The challenge is vast. The world needs about 300 new mines over the next 25 years just to meet current demand, according to Troy Hey, executive general manager at global miner MMG, which is majority-owned by China Minmetals.
“You know how hard it is to get one mine up, let alone 300,” Hey said at a business conference on Oct. 28, according to Australia’s News.com.au. He said the required infrastructure, investment, and skills would be “an order of magnitude beyond” what the industry has seen in the past two decades.
By Owen Evans
