Critical Minerals are Essential to Our Economy and Our National Security, and Nevada is Leading the Way
Nevada is known for our entertainment sector, our beautiful landscapes, and famous sites like Hoover Dam. But another area we’re becoming increasingly known for is our critical mineral industry. Critical minerals like aluminum, copper, nickel, and lithium are essential components of modern products like cell phones, jet engines, and solar panels.
What many people don’t know is that Nevada is sitting on enough lithium deposits to power the entire world with electric batteries. In fact, Nevada is one of the only states in the country with the capacity to host the entire critical mineral supply chain for lithium, from mining and extracting to processing and production.
We have the only facilities in the nation with commercial-scale lithium production at Albermarle’s Silver Peak. And, Humboldt County’s Thacker Pass Lithium project will come online soon, which will not only produce over 40,000 metric tons of bat- tery-grade lithium carbonate per year but also create over 2,000 jobs.
Beyond the jobs critical minerals bring to Nevada, especially to our rural communities, they’re also crucial for our national se- curity. Right now, across the globe, Communist China and other adversaries like Russia are intentionally flooding markets with cheap, low-quality critical minerals. They’re doing this so they can artificially lower the prices on these minerals and unfairly influence the market to undermine key U.S. investments. That’s why I’ve been working across the aisle in the Senate to protect and strengthen our domestic critical mineral supply chain: it’s the key to Nevada’s economic prosperity, our country’s competi- tiveness in the global marketplace, and our national security.
Earlier this year, I introduced multiple bipartisan bills to make the United States a leader in critical mineral development. One of those bills is the Restoring American Mineral Security Act that I wrote with Senator Bill Hagerty from Tennessee. This bill would create a Critical Minerals Security Alliance with our global trading partners, using strategic tariffs to incentivize our allies to strengthen domestic critical mineral supply chains. Member nations would be exempt from tariffs on critical minerals, as well as certain products made from them, if they take steps to address unfair trading practices – including by matching U.S. tariff rates on Chinese minerals. And that future tariff revenue from critical mineral imports would then be reinvested into a fund to support U.S. and allied critical mineral projects. This bill is all about curbing China’s influence and investing in our own future.
Another bipartisan bill I have is with Senators Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma and Lindsey Graham from South Carolina. Currently, China controls 90% of the world’s manufacturing of critical minerals into magnets. Rare-earth magnets are used in cell phones, computers, vehicles, and defense systems, and they are essential to national security and our economy. It’s crucial that we bring rare-earth magnet manufacturing to the United States. The only rare earth mine that exists in the United States is 15 miles outside Primm, Nevada. Minerals mined there should be processed in America instead of being shipped out to China. That’s what my Rare Earth Magnet Security Act would help achieve: it would provide a tax credit for magnets that are manufactured in the U.S. using allied minerals, and it would increase that tax credit if the components of those magnets are produced or recycled right here in America.
The United States has an opportunity to bring in more manufacturing jobs and stay competitive with China, and it starts by investing in our critical mineral industry right here in Nevada. We need to make it harder to work with China for critical minerals and reward American companies and our allies for cutting China out of the critical mineral development process. That’s how we keep our nation on the cutting edge – with Nevada leading the way forward.
