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Atinus

09/30/20 10:58 PM

#25672 RE: wwalker3 #25668

Yuge! https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-domestic-supply-chain-reliance-critical-minerals-foreign-adversaries/

"[T]he Secretary of the Interior conducted a review with the assistance of other executive departments and agencies (agencies) that identified 35 minerals that (1) are “essential to the economic and national security of the United States,” (2) have supply chains that are “vulnerable to disruption,” and (3) serve “an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for our economy or our national security.”... For 31 of the 35 critical minerals, the United States imports more than half of its annual consumption.I therefore determine that our Nation’s undue reliance on critical minerals, in processed or unprocessed form, from foreign adversaries constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat... It is the policy of the United States that relevant agencies should, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, prioritize the expansion and protection of the domestic supply chain for minerals and the establishment of secure critical minerals supply chains, and should direct agency resources to this purpose..."

Rhenium, abundant at Pebble, is on the critical minerals list:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/05/18/2018-10667/final-list-of-critical-minerals-2018 The list: "Aluminum (bauxite), antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, cesium, chromium, cobalt, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite (natural), hafnium, helium, indium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, niobium, platinum group metals, potash, the rare earth elements group, rhenium, rubidium, scandium, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium, and zirconium."

Rhenium is used in aircraft engines: https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2014/3101/pdf/fs2014-3101.pdf

The U.S. is 80 percent dependent on rhenium imports according to the USGS:
https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2020/mcs2020.pdf#page=11

According to NAK CEO Ron Thiessen: "Pebble is the largest deposit of rhenium in the world;" https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/story/2020/09/25/opinion/a-lot-riding-on-alaskas-pebble-mine/6457.html