U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is “very concerned” about China’s dominance of the global critical minerals supply chain.

"It's one of the pieces of the supply chain that we're very concerned about in the United States," Granholm told CNBC February 14 when discussing China’s grip on critical minerals. "We do not want to be over-reliant on countries whose values we may not share."

According to CNBC, Granholm said that the U.S. is currently updating its laws, including a 150-year-old mining regulation, to ensure the “sustainable and efficient” extraction of critical minerals.

"But it also means that we will be partnering with friends, like Australia, like Canada, and it's one of the subjects that we are raising here at the International Energy Agency," Granholm said. "We know all countries want to ensure that we have a critical stockpile of critical minerals and that we are allowed to diversify the supplies of those stockpiles. Both internationally and domestically, this is a focus of ours."

While speaking on the sidelines of the International Energy Agency’s 2024 Ministerial Meeting in Paris, France, Granholm added that improving critical mineral production in the U.S. could take longer than boosting supply chain cooperation with other countries when it comes to sourcing materials.

"We feel very strongly though that both extraction and processing of those critical minerals have to be addressed, either by the United States or our allies,” Granholm said. “And that's why we are working very closely to ensure that we have identified which raw materials [or] critical minerals we need to be able to do our transition to a clean energy economy."

China is the clear leader in the critical minerals supply chain, making up about 60% of the world’s rare earth minerals and materials production.

By: DocMemory
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