The Hill: America’s mineral dependence is dangerous and unnecessary
America is not heavily dependent on oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, yet disruption there has still shocked our economy. Imagine the consequences if we were more dependent.
In critical minerals, that vulnerability is real: The U.S. is heavily import-reliant for dozens of minerals essential to modern life. For several of them, more than half of America’s supply comes from countries vulnerable to conflict or regional turmoil, including China, Mexico and South Africa. A future disruption in or near these countries could send prices soaring, hurting everyday Americans.
But this vulnerability is largely optional: America has substantial deposits of many of the very minerals it imports from abroad. Yet Washington makes it extraordinarily difficult to develop those resources.
New research from Pacific Legal Foundation shows how overlapping federal permitting regimes delay and sometimes outright prevent domestic mineral production. The result is a mine permitting process that is painfully slow, costly and uncertain. On average, it takes 29 years to open a new mine in the U.S., longer than anywhere in the world except Zambia.
In cases of extraordinary delay, the problem is usually not any one statute alone, but the cumulative effect of layered federal requirements. Each adds another round of review, consultation, paperwork, and litigation risk. Together, they create costly delays that deter investment, drive capital abroad, and deepen America’s unnecessary dependence on foreign suppliers.
For example, nearly four decades after the permitting process began at Rock Creek in Montana, a copper-silver deposit capable of powering millions of electric vehicles and smartphones remains stuck in the ground. Meanwhile, the U.S. imports almost half of its copper.
NewRange in Minnesota tells a similar story, having spent 21 years and counting in permitting limbo. It holds enough nickel, copper and cobalt to supply millions of new homes and electric vehicles, yet the U.S. still relies on foreign suppliers for 41 percent of its nickel and 79 percent of its cobalt.
Even Thacker Pass in Nevada, often cited as a permitting success story, spent 17 years in review and litigation before preliminary construction of the mine began in 2023. One of the largest lithium deposits in the world still has not begun producing, even as the U.S. imports more than half of its lithium.
There is nothing wrong with importing minerals. Trade is a strength, not a weakness. The problem emerges when bad domestic policy turns foreign trade from a choice into a necessity by making materials too difficult to produce at home. America should be free to import minerals at will, but it should also be free to mine them.
If a future conflict disrupted the supply chains or transit routes that carry America’s imported critical minerals, the consequences would extend far beyond what we’re experiencing today. Prices would soar, markets would face shortages, and American workers could lose jobs.
Dependency is dangerous, but it is not beyond our control. America can reduce its dependence on foreign minerals by reforming the laws that keep its own resources locked away. Recent bipartisan permitting reform talks in Congress are an encouraging start.
Expanding domestic mining would not make the U.S. immune from global shocks. But it would make those shocks less severe. A country with strong domestic mining is still exposed to global price swings, but it is less likely to be cut off from the raw materials modern life depends on.
This op-ed was originally published in The Hill on May 15, 2026.
