By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Interior Department on Thursday took steps to increase recovery of critical minerals, used in everything from electric vehicles to high-tech weapons, from mine waste, coal refuse, tailings and abandoned uranium mines.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed his department to streamline federal regulations on the recovery of the minerals such as rare earths, lithium and cobalt from the waste.
The order directs the department to update guidance on making mine waste recovery projects eligible for federal funding and speed up reviews of plans to recover uranium and other minerals from abandoned mines. It also directs the U.S. Geological Survey to map and inventory federal mine waste sites.
It was the latest move by the administration of President Donald Trump to boost the domestic mineral industry that has long been dominated on the global stage by China in both production and processing. In March, Trump issued an executive order to invoke a Cold War-era Defense Production Act in an effort to boost processing a range of critical minerals.
“This initiative reflects our unwavering commitment to achieving mineral independence and ensuring that America leads the way in advanced technologies that power our future while turning environmental challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation,” Burgum said in a release. His department controls large swathes of federal land some of it home to abandoned mines.
The department expects the move to attract private investment, support environmental reclamation and boost energy sources.
Research by the USGS and state geological surveys has identified sources of minerals like zinc, germanium, tellurium and rare earth elements in shuttered and current mines.
Mining companies have embraced recovery. Freeport-McMoRan, for example, expects to produce 800 million pounds (362,900 metric tons) of copper annually as soon as 2027 by leaching the metal from piles of waste at its mines previously thought to be worthless.
Tar Creek lead and zinc mines near Picher, Oklahoma that were abandoned in the 1970s left behind waste rich in zinc and germanium, minerals the U.S. imports, the department said. In Utah’s Bingham Canyon, tellurium, vital for defense technologies, can be extracted from tailings created during copper mining.
Recovery of minerals from mining waste is promising but requires new processing methods to protect the environment. Legal issues associated with property rights can also complicate the recovery.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
