[House Hearing, 119 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
SECURING AMERICA'S MINERAL FUTURE:
UNLOCKING THE ECONOMIC VALUE BENEATH
OUR FEET
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
JUNE 24, 2025
__________
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Small Business Committee Document Number 119-015
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
60-853 WASHINGTON : 2025
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas, Chairman
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
JAKE ELLZEY, Texas
MARK ALFORD, Missouri
NICK LALOTA, New York
BRAD FINSTAD, Minnesota
TONY WIED, Wisconsin
ROB BRESNAHAN, Pennsylvania
BRIAN JACK, Georgia
TROY DOWNING, Montana
KIMBERLYN KING-HINDS, Northern Marina Islands
DEREK SCHMIDT, Kansas
JIMMY PATRONIS, Florida
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Ranking Member
MORGAN MCGARVEY, Kentucky
HILLARY SCHOLTEN, Michigan
LAMONICA MCIVER, New Jersey
GIL CISNEROS, California
KELLY MORRISON, Minnesota
GEORGE LATIMER, New York
DEREK TRAN, California
LATEEFAH SIMON, California
JOHNNY OLSZEWSKI, Maryland
HERB CONAWAY, New Jersey
MAGGIE GOODLANDER, New Hampshire
Lauren Holmes, Majority Staff Director
Melissa Jung, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Roger Williams.............................................. 1
Hon. Hillary Scholten............................................ 2
WITNESSES
Mr. Aaron T Dowd, Chief Executive Officer, Rare Earth Salts,
Beatrice, NE................................................... 5
Mr. Harvey Kaye, Executive Director, U.S. Critical Materials..... 6
Mr. Ken Mushinski, President and Chief Executive Officer, Rare
Element Resources, Littleton, CO............................... 8
Dr. Laura Stoy, PhD., Founder and Chief Executive Officer,
Rivalia Chemical, Lemont, IL................................... 9
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Mr. Aaron T. Dowd, Chief Executive Officer, Rare Earth Salts,
Beatrice, NE............................................... 35
Mr. Harvey Kaye, Executive Director, U.S. Critical Materials. 38
Mr. Ken Mushinski, President and Chief Executive Officer,
Rare Element Resources, Littleton, CO...................... 41
Dr. Laura Stoy, PhD., Founder and Chief Executive Officer,
Rivalia Chemical, Lemont, IL............................... 47
Questions for the Record:
None.
Answers for the Record:
None.
Additional Material for the Record:
Alliance for Mineral Security Letter......................... 51
Ecological Economics Letter.................................. 57
National Science Foundation (NSF) Letter..................... 66
Outdoor Alliance Letter...................................... 73
ReElement Technologies Letter................................ 77
Robert Anderson Letter....................................... 79
SECURING AMERICA'S MINERAL FUTURE: UNLOCKING THE ECONOMIC VALUE
BENEATH OUR FEET
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TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 2025
House of Representatives,
Committee on Small Business,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:08 a.m., in Room
2360, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Roger Williams
[chairman of the Committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Williams, Stauber, Meuser, Alford,
Finstad, Bresnahan, Downing, Patronis, Scholten, McIver,
Cisneros, Morrison, Tran, Simon, Olszewski, and Goodlander.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Good morning, everyone. I now call the
Committee on Small Business to order. And without objection,
the Chair is authorized to declare recess of the committee at
any time. I recognize myself for my opening statement.
Welcome to today's hearing entitled Securing America's
Mineral Future: Unlocking the Economic Value Beneath Our Feet.
Thank you to all our witnesses for joining us today. We
appreciate you taking time away from your busy businesses to
participate in today's conversation. So today, we will examine
how to secure our mineral supply chains against hostile foreign
adversaries such as the Chinese Communist Party and how
America's small businesses, national security, and ability to
create new, innovative technologies rely on these essential
materials.
Rare earth minerals and the broader category of critical
minerals used in the manufacturing process of batteries,
magnets, computers, and medical devices, to name a few, are
vital to the functioning of the American economy.
Unfortunately, far too long, burdensome regulations have made
the production and refining of rare earth and critical minerals
difficult in America, contributing to China's dominance in this
market.
Now, to combat the CCP's monopoly, President Trump issued
several executive orders aimed at bolstering domestic mineral
production and reducing our reliance on foreign adversaries.
Currently, the Mountain Pass Mine in California is the only
active mine in the United States that extracts rare earth
minerals. As a result, approximately 80 percent of the critical
minerals used in America are supplied from foreign sources. The
lack of domestic production undermines our national security
and hinders small business innovation.
Thankfully, the Trump administration is working to unleash
American energy production, safeguarding national security and
allowing American small businesses to compete on a global
stage. Small businesses are at the forefront of American
innovation. The enhancement of the defense industry that
provides our homeland relies on groundbreaking technology often
developed by small businesses that need rare earth minerals to
produce.
I want to thank our witnesses again for their contributions
to end U.S. reliance on foreign rare earth elements and
critical minerals. We look forward to your testimony.
With that, I will yield to the distinguished Ranking Member
today from the great state of Michigan, Ms. Scholten, for her
opening remarks.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to
our incredible witnesses and thank you for your patience. We
had a very important caucus meeting this morning. It kept me
tied up. I am so grateful, Mr. Chairman, that we are holding
this hearing this morning. Critical minerals are pivotal to our
nation's clean energy transition and national security. On
this, we agree there is a lot of common ground. That is why I
am so grateful that we are having this hearing.
These minerals are an essential component of our
smartphones, electric vehicles, and, importantly, military
hardware. Yet the supply chains for these 50 materials often
run offshore and through the influence of our adversaries, most
notably China, as you mentioned. That is why federal policy
should redirect our critical mineral supply chains through our
shores and the shores of our allies, not our enemies.
Every critical mineral is unique. Some, like aluminum, are
relatively easy to extract and process into usable material.
Others, like certain rare earth elements, are less concentrated
in ore. Therefore, they require advanced, complex refinement
methods that are developed by and accessible to only a handful
of countries and companies. And crucially, some critical
minerals just aren't deposited within U.S. territory, meaning
they can't be mined here. The diversity of these materials,
their properties, and extraction and refinement techniques
means that the avenues to onshoring them must be equally
diverse.
It is a complex problem, and we need a complex solution to
make these minerals accessible. In other words, Mr. Chairman,
we can't only mine our way out of our critical mineral needs.
The federal government must prioritize and maintain investments
in recycling, waste recovery, friend shoring, and industrial
policy if our nation is to reclaim control over our critical
mineral supplies.
In particular, I want to mention the invaluable boosts to
domestic critical mineral sourcing, processing, and component
manufacturing found in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs
Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, two landmark pieces of
legislation signed under the previous administration. Democrats
stand ready to defend and expand upon the massive long-term
investments the federal government has already made in this
space. We want to make it better.
I would also be remiss if I didn't highlight the downsides
of mining when not done properly. When a new mine is opened,
America gains another source of minerals, yes, but it often
loses unique pristine land that would have yielded far more
economic activity and value through tourism, hunting, fishing,
and other outdoor recreation business. In my family, we are
avid outdoorsmen and women, year-round anglers. This matters
deeply to us. Communities near mine often have to contend with
new large competitors for wastewater resources and pollution of
what remains with mining waste and byproducts. Sometimes, new
mines even run roughshod over long-standing treaties and
agreements with neighboring tribes. It is vital that we, as
federal policymakers, consider the tradeoffs of expanding
mining and the harm it can pose to nearby towns, tribes, and
small businesses.
It is also important to remember that hard rock mining in
America is not governed by an outdated law from the 1870s. You
heard me right. Not the 1970s, but the 1870s. Nearly 150 years
ago. Long before the concepts of land preservation and
environmental protection and even consumer automobiles entered
the mainstream.
Before we consider any changes to mining regulation, we
have to reform the underpinning mining law to further balance
the interests of miners and other industries and make mining
activities more sustainable for the environment. To ensure that
we can all continue to use these vital resources on shoring our
critical mineral supply chain is a complicated issue
intertwined with many other topics and policy areas. But I have
trust in this committee, our witnesses here today, and our
shared commitment to making sure that the vast majority of
these critical earth minerals are not sourced only through our
competitor.
I look forward to the hearing, Mr. Chairman, and I yield
back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Gentlelady yields back. And I will now
introduce our witnesses.
Our first witness here with us today is Aaron Dowd. Mr.
Dowd is the chief executive officer of Rare Earth Salts in
Beatrice, Nebraska. Mr. Dowd has more than two decades of
experience leading efforts at the intersection of global
business strategy, government affairs, and national security.
Mr. Dowd previously served as chief of staff in the U.S. Senate
and supported high-level policy work at the Atlantic Council
and Department of Energy. Mr. Dowd earned a Master's degree in
Business Administration from Duke, Home of the Blue Devils,
right, University, and Bachelor's degree in Political Science
from Marquette University. Thank you for being with us today,
and we look forward to our conversation.
Our next witness here with us today is Mr. Harvey Kaye. Mr.
Kaye is the executive director of U.S. Critical Materials in
Salt Lake City, Utah. Mr. Kaye has over 45 years experience in
finance, strategic planning, and executive leadership across
both public and private companies. Mr. Kaye has served as
Founder, Chairman, and now Director of Zero Gravity Solutions,
an agricultural biotechnology firm. Mr. Kaye also held various
leadership roles at Latitude Solutions, a company specializing
in water remediation and treatment. He received his Bachelor of
Science degree in Marketing from Temple University. So we are
glad you are here today and look forward to your testimony.
Our next witness is Mr. Ken Mushinski. Mr. Mushinski is the
President and chief executive officer of Rare Element Resources
in Sundance, Wyoming. Mr. Mushinski has over 30 years
experience in corporate development, mergers and acquisitions,
and regulatory navigation across the mining and nuclear energy
sectors. Mr. Mushinski previously served as vice president of
corporate planning and acquisitions for General Atomics
Technologies Corporation. Mr. Mushinski earned a Master's
degree in Business Administration and Bachelor's of science in
Mechanical Engineering from San Diego State University, where
the Aztecs are. And we appreciate you being here today.
And I now recognize the Ranking Member Ms. Scholten from
Michigan to briefly introduce our last witness.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Laura Stoy is an environmental engineer and the founder
and CEO of Rivalia Chemical, an Illinois startup developing a
novel method to chemically recover rare earth elements from
coal ash and other mining waste. Rivalia Chemical patented the
process and has been working on commercializing it since 2022.
Additionally, the firm enjoys access to the Argonne National
Laboratory in Lamont under the Department of Energy's Lab-
Embedded Entrepreneurship Program, LEAP. Previously, Dr. Stoy
served at the Environmental Protection Agency as a National
Science Foundation intern fellow. At the EPA, Dr. Stoy worked
on an environmental assessment of rare earth extraction from
mining waste, precisely the process that she is developing and
using now. While at school, Dr. Stoy also helped create an app
named RocketJudge, which automates judge work for competitions
such as fashion shows, barbecue festivals, and professional
conferences. It is safe to say, Mr. Chairman, that Dr. Stoy is
a serial innovator. Dr. Stoy holds a Bachelor's of Arts degree
in Chemistry from Vanderbilt University and a Ph.D. in
environmental engineering from Georgia Tech. Welcome, Dr. Stoy.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Welcome again to all of you. And then,
before we begin to recognize the witnesses, we do have a few
rules around here. Got to go over the rules, all right? And I
would like to remind all of you that your oral testimony is
restricted to 5 minutes in length. If you see the light turn
red in front of you, it means your 5 minutes has concluded, and
you should wrap up your testimony. If you keep talking, you
will hear me do this. That is a kind way of saying, quit
talking. Okay? And so, and also on another note, you
periodically will recognize or will see some of our panel move
in and out. That is because we got other hearings going on. It
has nothing to do with whether you said the right thing or the
wrong thing. We will be moving in and out, but you will see
that.
So with that in mind, I now recognize Mr. Dowd for his 5-
minute opening remarks.
STATEMENTS OF MR. AARON T. DOWD, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, RARE
EARTH SALTS; MR. HARVEY KAYE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, U.S. CRITICAL
MATERIALS; MR. KEN MUSHINSKI, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, RARE ELEMENT RESOURCES; AND DR. LAURA STOY, PHD.,
FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, RIVALIA CHEMICAL
STATEMENT OF AARON T. DOWD, CEO, RARE EARTH SALTS
Mr. DOWD. Chairman Williams, Congresswoman Scholten, and
distinguished Members of the committee, thank you for the
invitation to testify on the critical issue of securing
America's mineral future. I appear before you today
representing Rare Earth Salts, a Nebraska-based small business
at the forefront of addressing one of our nation's challenges.
The United States confronts an unprecedented threat to our
economic sovereignty and national security through China's
control of the rare earth elements supply chain. Rare earths
are a set of 17 elements in the periodic table that play a
critical role in our national security, energy independence,
environmental future, and economic prosperity. These elements
are far more than mere commodities; they form the backbone of
modern technological advancements. From powering batteries and
electric vehicles to enabling medical equipment, military
systems, smartphones, and wind turbines, rare earths are
foundational to the innovation driving our technological
civilization.
The age of technology is indeed the age of critical
minerals with vast geopolitical implications. The need for
securing both domestically sourced rare earth elements and
domestic rare earth processing infrastructure is vital.
Today, China controls 90 percent of the global downstream
rare earth market, impacting the rest of the world's supply
chain and giving them significant control in restricting
America's access to materials vital for manufacturing and
defense capabilities. This was not always the case. From the
1960s until the 1990s, the U.S., specifically California's
Mountain Pass mine, led global production. However, China's
deliberate industrial policy systematically captured market
control, creating the vulnerable supply chain we face today.
Though China's dominance in the rare earth market has prompted
global efforts to find alternative sources and processes to
produce these critical compounds, producers outside of China
continue to face formidable challenges, struggling to compete
with the highly competitive pricing of China's domestic market.
The challenge extends beyond supply security to economic
competitiveness. China's current market dominance stems from
their large-scale use of Solvent Extraction, which were
developed and implemented in the U.S. in the 1960s. These
processes require hundreds of separation stages and generate
excessive chemical waste. Western companies utilizing this
proven method face higher production costs due to necessary
environmental and worker protections. This cost differential
has created a market failure where Western innovation cannot
compete with Chinese production, despite superior technology
and environmental stewardship. For small businesses like ours,
this represents both a challenge and an extraordinary
opportunity to innovate and lead.
Founded in 2012 by Dr. Joseph Brewer, Rare Earth Salts
exemplifies how America's small business innovation can address
strategic national challenges. Rare Earth Salts addresses the
global need for a cost-effective, sustainable, and
environmentally friendly rare earth separation process.
Prior to developing our proprietary processes, we evaluated
the strengths and weaknesses of every separation process used
since the 1940s. That allowed us to invent a revolutionary
electrochemical process from the ground up based on sound basic
chemistry. The separation process advancements by Rare Earth
Salts represent industry-changing solutions demanded by the
rare earth supply chain to profitably compete with Chinese
production and maintain a low environmental footprint.
Rare Earth Salts has been working closely with the U.S.
government and has received multiple grants and awards for its
separation technologies from the Department of Defense and the
Department of Energy. These private-public partnerships
demonstrate how federal investment in small business innovation
can yield strategic returns for national security while
building defense industrial capacity. Rare Earth Salts recently
received an award from the Department of Defense to increase
production of heavy rare earth elements, specifically Terbium.
The rare earth challenge represents more than supply chain
vulnerability; it is a defining opportunity for American small
businesses to lead the next generation of critical mineral
production. Companies like Rare Earth Salts exemplify how
American innovation can compete globally.
Supporting domestic innovation in mineral processing can
help ensure the United States does not merely secure its
mineral future but leads the world in sustainable, competitive
production of these essential materials. By supporting small
businesses developing innovative separation technologies, we
can reestablish America's leadership in this critical sector.
Rare Earth Salts stands ready to contribute to America's
mineral independence. The mission requires collective effort.
With a robust policy framework that acknowledges the strategic
importance of domestic critical mineral production, American
small businesses can help transform this challenge into a
competitive advantage. The technology is ready. The market need
is undeniable. The national security imperative is urgent. We
need to now unlock the economic value beneath our feet and
secure America's mineral future.
Chairman Williams, Congresswoman Scholten, and
distinguished Members of the committee, thank you again for the
invitation to testify, and I look forward to your questions.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you.
I now recognize Mr. Kaye for his 5-minute opening remarks.
STATEMENT OF HARVEY KAYE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, U.S. CRITICAL
MATERIAL
Mr. KAYE. Thank you Mr. Chairman and Members of the
Committee for allowing us to testify today. This is an issue
that has taken 15 years to come to the point that we are at
right now. We have all talked about Chinese dominance. It is
actually 90 or 95 percent dominance in terms of its ability to
process rare earths. Their concerns about the environment are
not the same as ours. It is no longer acceptable to spend 20 or
29 years to get a project online.
To that end, U.S. Critical Materials controls 339 claims
covering approximately 11 square miles in a place called Sheep
Creek, Montana. Montana in the past has been known as the
Treasure State. Our objective is to make it the Treasure State
again.
To that end we have a two-point point of our spear to
accomplish those goals. First, is the rare earths that
encompass our deposit have been considered now the highest-
grade rare earths ever found in America, averaging 9 percent
up. We also have a very robust deposit of gallium. Gallium is a
mineral, a critical mineral that has 3,800 military
applications. We now face a geopolitical situation that we are
all aware of. It is in the front page news. To that end, we
have expanded a great amount of the critical minerals and rare
earths required for missiles, for radar, for advanced aircraft,
the F47, et cetera. We cannot be dependent upon the Chinese to
be our supply of these materials.
Therefore our focus and the focus I hope of this committee
is to assist companies such as ourselves to accomplish those
goals. What do we need to do that? We need help in accelerating
permitting. Today, as the congresswoman stated, there is
regulations that we are dealing with since 1870. Okay? We have
made an attempt to fix that through Fast-41. Okay? Now, it
requires cutting the red tape, unchaining the American
entrepreneurial spirit in order to accomplish the goals. We
have it here. It should be found in America.
We also have now entered into a venture with one of the
prestigious American National labs called Idaho National Lab.
Dr. Robert Fox is an acknowledged expert in the world of
developing processes and technologies to process these kinds of
minerals. We did a full-court press with them, and at the end
of a year, they have accomplished the goal of setting forth the
flow diagrams and the methodology for a process that we call an
electrochemical membrane reactor. It is environmentally
conscious. It has the ability to process rare earths in an
efficient environmental manner.
To that end, therefore, we are working very hard to
cooperate with the government. This committee can help us and
the entire industry enormously. We need to do what we did with
Sputnik. We need to do what we did with the Manhattan Project.
This country can no longer have the Chinese knee on our neck.
Therefore, as a group, we need to work together, government-
private partnerships. And what is required? What is required is
help in permitting. What is required is for us to establish a
permanent market for the offtake so the Chinese can no longer
utilize price manipulation to hurt our domestic marketplace.
And we need to work together as a team in order to make the
United States critically mineral independent and sovereign
again. And so with that, I yield with 22 seconds left.
Chairman WILLIAMS. You are going to go far in this company.
Thank you for the testimony.
I now recognize Mr. Mushinski for his 5-minute opening
remarks.
STATEMENT OF KEN MUSHINSKI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, RARE ELEMENT
RESOURCES
Mr. MUSHINSKI. Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Scholten,
and esteemed Members of the committee, thank you for the
opportunity to address this committee on issues of vital
importance to this nation-securing critical minerals and, in my
case specifically, rare earths, for our National defense and
high-tech industries and supporting small businesses in meeting
that need.
RAR is a publicly traded company with a critical rare earth
deposit and state-of-the-art innovative rare earth processing
and separation demonstration plant in Wyoming. We have invested
over $170 million in developing our USGS-recognized world-class
rare-earth deposit and proprietary separation technology.
I know you are all well-versed in why rare earths are
critical components in our modern technology, essentially, in
everything from smartphones, electric vehicles, wind turbines,
and defense systems. Our rare earth elements are enablers to
the evolution of our high-tech world and vital to our American
defense system.
It is also widely known that China dominates the rare earth
industry and is taking deliberate action to control the entire
processing and manufacturing supply chains where rare earths
are utilized for downstream products. This has created an
untenable National and economic scenario. Chinese dominance and
manipulation of the rare earth extraction, processing and
separation, and permanent magnet production is an existential
risk to our modern world. Further, this dominance allows China
to influence global prices, making it risky for competitors to
invest.
Small businesses like RER have unique technologies and the
potential to innovate and contribute to domesticating the rare
supply chain from mine to magnets. However, our small companies
face challenges that have distinct needs and must be addressed
to ensure a sustainable domestic rare earth supply chain.
As an example of the obstacles faced by RER, we have
completed our resource confirmation and commenced the arduous
NEPA permitting of the Bear Lodge Project in 2011. We spent
over $30 million and many years progressing that effort, an
effort that was ultimately derailed through Chinese market
manipulation whereby rare earths supplied by the Chinese
flooded the market, and prices bottomed out. As a result, RER's
access to capital quickly disappeared and, ultimately,
resulting in cessation of operation and almost bankrupting our
company.
Realizing we could not compete with predatory Chinese
market dominance, RER, in conjunction with its now majority
shareholder and affiliate of General Atomics, pivoted to
proving our novel and proprietary rare earth material
separation technology so that we and potentially other domestic
rare earth companies would not be reliant on China to
economically and efficiently separate the rare earth
concentrates produced here in the United States. Our goal is to
compete with China in rare earth production and also create a
path for processing and separation that is economically and
environmentally superior--adhering to all U.S. Environmental
regulations while supplanting the environmentally detrimental
and costly steps in conventional Chinese technology.
With that challenge in front of us, RER, with partial
funding from the Department of Energy and the state of Wyoming,
have constructed and will soon begin operating our over $66
million demonstration plant that is intended to prove our
separation technology on an industrial scale. Even with the
expected success from this plant's operation, without
additional support from the government, RER and other
innovative small businesses face monumental hurdles.
Specifically, access to capital requires a certain level of
market stability that is thwarted by Chinese ability to
manipulate the rare earth market.
Small businesses like RER, unfortunately, find themselves
in a paradox whereby investors and potential industry supply
chain partners require certainty in the markets, and yet this
is not possible with the ongoing threat of Chinese market
interference.
We believe addressing this nascent market's unique
challenges, especially for small and innovative businesses,
requires a multifaceted approach to market stabilization. RER
encourages Congress to pursue policies and support funding to
support small businesses that are innovating and progressing a
secure domestic rare supply chain, including government
purchasing to establish strategic stockpiles as potentially
envisioned, but with the $2.5 billion critical minerals
included in the recently passed reconciliation package,
government grants to unlock industry innovation, government
incentives and guarantees to encourage private investment in
loans and permitting reform to bring surety to project
timeliness.
We believe these types of initiatives will remove the
significant market obstacles and barriers to progress for small
businesses engaged in rare supply chain so that collectively,
we can become a solution to a very real and present danger to
our nation's defense and high-tech industries.
I am honored to be here today to share with you RER's
unique experience as a small business in the rare earth
industry, and I look forward to addressing your questions.
Thank you very much.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Gentleman yields back.
And now recognize Dr. Stoy for her 5-minute opening
remarks.
STATEMENT OF LAURA STOY, FOUNDER AND CEO, RIVALIA CHEMICAL CO.
Ms. STOY. Chairman Williams, esteemed Member Scholten,
Members of the committee, thank you so much for the opportunity
to speak today. It is an honor to discuss this issue that is
critical to the future of U.S. mining and materials, securing
our critical mineral supply chains for national defense,
technological innovation, and manufacturing strength.
My name is Dr. Laura Stoy, and I am the CEO and founder of
Rivalia Chemical Company. At Rivalia, we are pioneering new
chemical extraction technologies to cover valuable rare earth
elements from industrial wastes, including coal fly ash and
other coal combustion byproducts, phosphogypsum, acid mine
drainage, and mine tailings. Our patent-pending process
extracts rare earths from these materials and separates them
from their major elements in a single step. A significant
challenge in traditional mining processing for rare earths.
Using this method and by using wastes, we can avoid the
environmental and economic costs of mining while minimizing
hazardous waste generation.
The U.S. has approximately 2 million metric tons of rare
earths and reserves. However, there is far more locked in our
waste materials. Researchers at UT Austin estimate that there
are 11 million metric tons of rare earths and coal ash alone.
Oak Ridge National Lab found millions of tons of rare earths in
phosphogypsum. Duke University did research that found that
abandoned mine drainage releases 500 to 3,400 tons of rare
earths annually through acid mine drainage. These waste streams
are often overlooked, but they present an opportunity to both
recover rare earths and remediate environmental damage in local
communities.
There are currently no companies producing rare earths from
waste at scale in the U.S. right now, though I will note to
this committee that there are many small businesses and
startups addressing this opportunity space.
Rivalia's focus is on mining rare earths from waste, but I
want to emphasize that it is likely that this is just one
component of a broader rare earth element supply chain along
with traditional mining. Building a broader, more diverse
supply chain for rare earths will make our system overall more
resilient to disruption and manipulation by our adversaries.
To achieve supply chain stabilization, the U.S. can't only
mine. We can't mine our way out of this. We also need to
separate, find, materialize, and produce the finished
products--the permanent magnets.
China's dominance in rare earths comes from its control
over this entire supply chain, which includes processing
minerals both from its own mines and from international
partners. To compete globally, U.S. rare earth producers must
have robust midstream processing. This requires a skilled
workforce, innovation, and efforts to derisk the market for
private investors, especially given the price volatility caused
by China's outsized market influence. Our market also must be
cost competitive. China has subsidized their supply chains,
enabling their businesses to offer products at significantly
lower costs. Competing with that will require American
ingenuity and innovation to lower our production costs and make
U.S. rare earths attractive to both customers and investors.
I founded Rivalia after completing my PhD in environmental
engineering at Georgia Tech, where I was fortunate enough to
receive both government and private funding, the National
Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship, as well as
funding from Georgia Power, one of the major utilities in the
Southeast. This funding allowed me to develop the core
technology behind Rivalia.
Since then, we participated in TechStars, a prestigious
startup accelerator which included raising venture capital.
This also allowed us to secure a future pilot with Southern
Company. We have also raised non-dilutive funding through the
National Science Foundation's SBIR program, which is helping us
to de-risk our technology and validate it with other materials.
We also have obtained funding through the Department of Energy
EnergyWerx Vouchers Program as well as the Department of Energy
Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program called LEAP. And through
that, we have gained access to critical expertise and
facilities at Argonne National Lab. This support has been
crucial to scaling our technology and positioning it for high
market impact.
For hard tech startups like Rivalia and my colleagues here,
government funding is essential. It provides early-stage
capital that is needed for high-risk project with immense
potential but limited investor interest. Government funding
acts as a third-party validation, attracting private capital
and allowing us to make tangible progress on critical
milestones. Hard tech ventures require significant upfront
capital from prototyping, testing, and compliance, and without
government support, companies like ours would face much greater
challenges in bringing new game-changing technologies to
market.
The U.S. is at a critical juncture in securing its mineral
future. We need to embrace innovation, leverage public and
private funding, and develop new technologies to ensure a
robust and diverse critical supply chain here. Government
support for startups like Rivalia are essential for maintaining
U.S. leadership and technology, national security, and economic
competitive--competitiveness.
Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Gentlelady yields back. We will now move
to the Member questions under the 5-minute rule, and I will
recognize myself for 5 minutes.
Throughout the Biden and Harris administration, the
government has burdened small businesses with endless
regulatory red tape. These regulations have slowed business-
building projects and mining efforts. And I think we can all
agree that we should get the government out of the way to let
small businesses do what they do best. Now, Mr. Kaye, can you
provide us with some examples of how the government has stood
in your way?
Mr. KAYE. We have had these claims for better than 35
years. They--our approach is to do this with a great amount of
environmental consciousness. Therefore, we deal with the U.S.
Forest Service. The response many times is slow to get back.
There has been a great amount of progress, however, recently
with the advent of Fast-41. We have filed an application for
that. And what it does is it holds the various agencies that
are responsible for approvals to a very strict timetable.
Our plan is to be able to extract from our deposit
literally this year, to be able to, in effect, stand on the
steps of the White House and or Congress with a bag of gallium
rare earths that were found in Montana, processed with American
technology, and available for the defense of this country and
indeed the free world. So it is starting to change. And we are
seeing the effect of that because there is now a recognition
that there is an issue, and we can't wait 15 or 20 years to
bring a deposit online. So we feel that things are getting much
better, and for that, we are grateful.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Good. Let's book that date, okay?
Mr. KAYE. Yep.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Domestic mining of rare earth elements
and critical minerals faces numerous challenges, and one of
which is that America has few known large deposits of pure rare
earth elements. Despite these challenges, the United States is
well positioned to quickly build its rare earth refining
capacity. So, Mr. Dowd, can you please explain the innovative
approach your company has taken in the refining process and
what impact those innovations have on the entire mining
industry?
Mr. DOWD. Thank you, Sir. We believe the enormous demand
for non-Chinese rare earth supply will only be met with the
reimagining of innovative, nontraditional clean separation
technologies. Our processes have a significant advantage over
existing separation technologies in an industry that has not
seen much viable refining innovation in more than three-
quarters of a century. Our technology significantly reduces the
cost of producing rare earths from concentrate, be it from
recycled material, rare earth elements, specific mining
operations, or as a byproduct of a mining operation. Our
patented processed capital expenditure and operating expense
are highly cost-competitive versus traditional rare earths
refining. Our processing time from concentrate to first
finished products is days with very limited separation steps
versus months and dozens of steps with solvent extraction. Rare
Earth Salts provides an immediate opportunity to reestablish
domestic commercial production. The capability of our
technologies has been thoroughly validated.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Okay, thank you. And now, quickly in the
time I have got left, rare earth mining extraction is a heavily
regulated industry that we have talked about today. Well, rare
earth mines must comply with a substantial number of
regulations intended for traditional mines. Rare earth mines
also must navigate Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements.
So Mr. Mushinski, how is your business dealing with this
complicated web of regulations? How can it be simplified?
Mr. MUSHINSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do have a NRC
possession license because as with most REE ore, it does have
some naturally occurring thorium and uranium in it. So, we do
have a license. That was quite a detailed and lengthy process.
They, the NRC, did their own environmental assessment in
addition to what is required by the EPA for a mine. It was
costly, expensive and took a significant amount of time. We do
have that license. That license is valid through 2027. However,
we, like others, have a deposit that is on National Forest
Service. We also have invested and had various meetings with
the permitting council and are progressing toward Fast-41
permitting of our mine. That (Fast-41) is a much welcome
improvement to the permitting process, and I will admit it is
not a Trump administration policy, it is a previous
administration that started Fast-41, but it is this
administration that has advanced it into the mining sector. And
we are very appreciative of that, and that is looked at as
being helpful to our processing.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Gentleman yields back.
I now recognize the Ranking Member for her 5 minutes of
questioning.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Stoy, I am
wondering if you could just start out and elaborate on the
recovery process Rivalia is developing. Talk to us about how
you are getting these minerals out of waste.
Ms. STOY. Absolutely. Thank you so much for the question.
So Rivalia's patent pending technology employs a recyclable
ionic liquid in a closed-loop process that selectively extracts
rare earths from the starting material. So again, this starting
material might be coal ash, bauxite residue, phosphogypsum,
mining tailings, acid mine drainage magnets, for really any
rare earth element-rich waste is in our realm. So, we have some
physical separation processes optimized to isolate higher rare
earth element contained fractions within the original material.
This helps improve our downstream efficiency. And depending on
the material we also might have some chemical pretty treatment
steps.
But our core innovation is that our method both extracts
the rare earths from the starting material and does the
separation from the bulk in one single step. We use this
using--or we do this using proprietary chemistry to selectively
bind with the rare earths while leaving most of the elements
behind. This approach achieves higher selectivity than
conventional acid leaching methods, reducing chemical
consumption and waste generation. Following extraction, the
chemical chemicals are recovered and recycled through the
system, so they are ready for reuse, while the residuals are
conditioned for beneficial use applications.
We generate two valuable rare earth element product
streams. Scandium oxide product, which is a valuable rare earth
used in solid oxide fuel cells, high-performance aluminum
alloys, and specialized lighting applications. Second, we
produce a mixed rare earth element concentrate containing
multiple elements, including neodymium, cerium, lanthanum,
terbium, europium, yttrium. All of these have significant roles
in different applications that we have talked about already.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Thank you. For my second question and
sticking with you, Dr. Stoy, how much of the rare earth in
existing products currently are we recycling?
Ms. STOY. Thank you for the question. To my knowledge,
there is very limited recycling of rare earths in the U.S. I
don't know of any companies doing this at scale right now. For
some products, it is fundamentally challenging to extract rare
earths from them. You know, consider consumer electronics, you
know, your cell phone, your laptop is not designed to easily
pull the rare earth elements out. You also have to collect them
from the consumers. And that is not trivial. This is the same
for EV motors. Permanent magnets in the motors will need to
recover those. Industrial wastes don't have that kind of
spatial distribution issue. In that way, they are almost more
like a mine. But there is no one really recycling rare earths
at this time.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. So, as a follow-up to that, can you describe
the potential for recycling to add to the rare earths supply
that we have here?
Ms. STOY. Yeah, absolutely.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. And be as specific as you can. I know it is
not currently being done, so it is hard to sort of, you know,
get into specifics. But in terms of percentages.
Ms. STOY. Yeah, there is a lot of potential here. It is
hard to quantify and be forward-looking here. There is a
researcher at Ames National Lab in Iowa, Dr. Kenneth Nlebedim,
and one of the things he suggested was in the next 10 years,
more than 25 percent of the demand for rare earths could come
from recycling efforts.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Okay, very good. I agree with your comments
about, you know, the pressing nature of this problem requiring
a bit of an all of the above approach. Traditional mining, as
well as recycling. How would you characterize added returns
created by new mines individually, but as well as opposed to
recycling or in contrast to recycling?
Ms. STOY. Yeah, I think all of the above is really the
answer here. You know, we, right now, we have one active mine.
Would it be helpful if we had more? I can imagine so, but it is
hard to say, right? Is five new mines the new--is the right
answer. 50? 500? At a certain point, we do reach diminishing
returns. Frankly, you know, what all of these minds do really
need is refining. And I know some of my colleagues here are
talking about integrating that into their processes. And that
midstream or refining, in my opinion, is much more important
and a higher priority than opening a new mine. Because if we
don't have that refining capacity, we are sending our
concentrate abroad for refining. And 99 percent of the time,
that is going to be in China. We don't have--we won't have--you
know, we could have dozens of mines, but if we are still
sending the concentrate abroad, we haven't solved the problem.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Okay, thank you. Very enlightening. I yield
back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize
Mr. Stauber from the great state of Minnesota for 5 minutes.
Mr. STAUBER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The
development of America's abundance of resources is critical,
and rare earth minerals are of deep importance to me in my
district. The Minnesota's 8th Congressional District holds the
biggest untapped copper-nickel find in the world. The previous
administration banned 224,000 acres of it and took two leases
away from a mining company that they had since 1966. Just last
week, Talon Metals in Tamarack, Minnesota, brought an
exploratory drill section: 28 percent nickel. The highest in
the world. I don't know if you all knew that. Talon Metals,
Northeastern Minnesota, drill hole, 28 percent nickel. Nowhere
in the world can we do that? Northeastern Minnesota is ready,
able, and willing to deliver these critical minerals to this
great nation for our strategic national security.
I sit on the Natural Resources Committee. There was a
Democrat witness when we were talking about mining. I said to
her, I said, ``You say it is too wet in Minnesota to mine. It
is too dry in Arizona to mine. Where would you like us to
mine?'' And her answer, she said it out loud, ``Nowhere.'' We
have an anti-mining political agenda in this nation that is
crippling our security, our strategic national security.
Northeastern Minnesota mines the iron ore that makes 82 percent
of this nation's steel that helped us win two world wars. And
we continuously have to battle for these good union jobs in
this town. The prior administration was the most anti-mining
administration in the history of this country.
We will follow all environmental and labor standards. Allow
us to do so. And when we do that, we will bring the economic
engine to our communities. We will bring good-paying jobs to
the iron range of Northern Minnesota, which jobs start at
$90,000 a year without overtime, health benefits, et cetera.
The median household income for the district that I represent
is under $74,000. One mining job can make up for that. This is
how important domestic mining is to our nation, to our
strategic national security, to our economy.
And, ma'am, you are right. Recycling is part of it. That is
part of the concern. And bring it on. But we are--the demand is
so much more right now.
There are 17 rare earth minerals, right? China just stopped
selling six of their critical rare earth minerals to the world.
15 of the 19 industrial mines in the Congo are owned by the
Chinese communist party, who use child slave labor. We can't
accept that anymore. We should never enter into a memorandum of
understanding with the communist country of China for our rare
earths. Never. Yet the past administration did.
We have the opportunity to mine in this country. We can
mine in Minnesota. We can mine in Alaska. We can mine in Utah.
We can mine in Nevada. We can mine in California. We can mine
in Washington. We can mine in Pennsylvania. And the list goes
on and on. We have to have the political will to do it. It will
be an economic boom for our communities. The jobs. What an
opportunity do we have? Let's not miss it. And it starts with
all of us understanding the importance of mining and the value
that it can bring to our economy and our strategic national
security, the state of Minnesota, and Northeastern Minnesota. I
want you to understand the iron range and the Duluth complex,
which is the copper, nickel, and cobalt--we have the
opportunity to bring it to the nation.
I am so proud of each and every one of you here to talk
about this opportunity. Mr. Chair, we cannot miss this
opportunity. Our nation is depending on it. Our small
businesses are depending on it. Our strategic national security
is depending on it, and our communities and our minors need it.
And I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Gentleman yields back. I now recognize
Ms. McIver from the great state of New Jersey for 5 minutes.
Ms. MCIVER. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank
you to our Ranking Member for convening this hearing today. I
want to thank each witness for being here today with us.
Critical minerals are the foundation of our national
security and economic resilience. And we must ensure that
Congress supports the responsible development, processing, and
reuse of these essential resources. Small businesses, from
clean technology startups to equipment manufacturers to
recycling innovators, are the engine of American creativity.
They must be at the center of any National critical mineral
strategy. That means leveling the playing field, ensuring fair
access to capital, and providing consistent federal support to
help them compete with larger and often state-subsidized global
players. We must continue to build on the historic investments
made through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the
Inflation Reduction Act, not roll them back. These programs
support responsible development, promote environmental
innovation, and empower the small businesses driving the next
generation of American innovation. America's energy future,
security, and economic leadership depend on it.
I have two questions, and these are both for Dr. Stoy. Some
of my colleagues from across the aisle argued that repealing
clean energy investments made under the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act will save money
for our nation and its small business owners. Can you speak
about how repealing the investments made under these laws will
cost us in the critical mineral--minerals industry?
Ms. STOY. Absolutely. Thank you so much for the question. I
will say I am not an expert on the Inflation Reduction Act. But
my understanding is that, you know, as we seek to build out the
entire supply chain in the U.S. as we seek to, you know,
bolster manufacturing, we need to have incentives all the way
down the line, especially given that we are dealing with a non-
market player. The IRA includes many provisions that help
bolster that. And if we cripple the end of the process by
removing customer-consumer incentives, we are terminating the
line. And ultimately, what that means is that our products will
not end up being sold in the U.S. They won't end up being
refined in the U.S. They will go abroad.
Ms. MCIVER. Thank you for that. Given how far behind we
already are in securing critical mineral supply chains,
wouldn't further funding rollbacks be a national security risk,
in your opinion?
Ms. STOY. Yes, I would agree with that.
Ms. MCIVER. Thank you. With that, I yield back.
Mr. MEUSER. [Presiding.] Gentlelady Yields back. I now
recognize myself for 5 minutes.
Folks, we have got a very serious discussion here. I think
Mr. Kaye brought that out very well initially, and it is
certainly being repeated over and over. So we got to figure out
what we can do about it. Something tells me you all have some
good ideas and perhaps a written plan, white paper, on what,
not just what we need to do over the next 10 years, but even
over the next 2 or 3 immediately, right? We have one mining
company of rare earths elements in the United States, MP in
Southern California, one processing refinery, I believe owned
by MP. Now, China provides 70 percent of the world's rare
earths. What are we doing, right? So this is a very important
meeting, and hopefully, this is just the beginning.
I have a bill, and frankly, looking at it now, I think this
just scratches the surface offering for rare earth elements
production, tax credits $9 within a ton--on a ton of coal for
refuse, $20 per kg on REEs extracted and sold from coal, $3 tax
credit per barrel on brine water that we are about to introduce
and et cetera, a couple of others. Now, I am not sure that is
going to do the trick. It might be a step in the right
direction. Mr. Kaye, what are your thoughts on some of my
comments here?
Mr. KAYE. I think you hit the nail on the head. It goes
this way. 15 years it has taken for us to do nothing while the
Chinese have dominated. They and their government have been
extremely supportive of their ability to create world dominance
in this. And it was part of a strategy because they think in
that context.
The first thing we need to think about is creating a
stockpile. Why a stockpile? If we have a strategic oil reserve,
then we need to have a strategic critical mineral reserve. What
we intend to do, just to comment on it, is we intend to deliver
a reasonable amount of gallium by the end of this year. That
means that we will stockpile the other rare earths, perhaps on
a military base, which is part of an executive order that said
let's use the Pentagon, let's use military bases. We are in
discussions regarding a project such as that today.
Secondly, with a little bit of government support that
Idaho National Labs has agreed that they can cut a year off the
development of the plant that we are putting online. That will
be a full-blown demonstration plant, at least 2 tons a day, and
we can start delivering actual rare earths to our Defense
Department, to various other. They talk about the Stargate
project. We have allocated $500 billion artificial
intelligence, medical applications. Nobody has ever talked
about medical. Well, guess what? You can't have diagnostic
equipment. You can't have the new technologies that are coming
out without rare earths.
Mr. MEUSER. So let's hear now, Mr. Mushinski, I am going to
ask you on the type of tax credits, incentives, and regulatory
reform, some of your thoughts on what we need to do to
springboard and blast off, if you will, or at least get off the
ground.
Mr. MUSHINSKI. Thank you, Congressman. For me and for RER,
and I assume the other businesses here, it is market stability
that is important. We have tried to start up businesses before,
and the Chinese are very aware. The Chinese are very smart
people. They can flood the market and deplete prices and drive
us out of business. You will recall that even MP, Mountain
Pass, at the time, was driven into bankruptcy by that exact
point. So, I agree a strategic stockpile is important. This is
a nascent industry in the United States, and the companies
here, mine included, need a foothold. We are not looking for
the government to give us a complete handout. We need a
foothold so that we can get investors. So that we can have
bankable contracts. So that we can go to capital markets and
have a business plan that they don't have to be concerned about
market manipulation.
Mr. MEUSER. All right, quickly, Ms. Stoy, do you agree?
Ms. STOY. Yes, absolutely. The thing that I talk to when I
talk to investors is they say, well, what about China? What
about the market? Like for me to deliver a 5-year financial
plan, I need to have pricing information, and we have an opaque
market with non-market players on non-exchange traded metals.
Mr. MEUSER. Well, as I opened with, this is very, very
important. Perhaps rather than call it the Manhattan Project,
as I am from Pennsylvania, we will call it something other,
maybe the Pennsylvania Project. But we look forward to
continued conversations very much so. Thank you. I yield back.
I now recognize Mr. Tran from California for 5 minutes.
Mr. TRAN. Thank you so much, Chairman. Welcome, witnesses.
Thank you for being here. Dr. Stoy, in 2024, the Select
Committee on China released a bipartisan report revealing that
the Chinese communist government supplies over 50 percent of
the U.S. demand for 24 critical minerals, including 90 percent
of rare earth elements. The report also emphasized that
advanced recycling technologies offer a scalable solution to
strengthen the domestic supply chain for these minerals and
reduce our reliance on China. However, the Trump administration
has reduced staffing in the Department of Energy's loan and R&D
programs, the various resources needed to help reduce U.S.
dependence on China for critical minerals. In fact, over 77
billion in funding at the Department of Energy remains frozen.
How does that affect their capacity to invest and award
contracts to businesses like yours, Dr. Stoy?
Ms. STOY. Thank you so much for the question. This is
something that I think about very often is how, you know, to
fund, you know, the--the projects that we will be building, the
projects that we will be financing. These will take high
amounts of capital. The Department of Energy has been
instrumental in putting together different loan offices,
different programs for startups like mine and many others.
Without staff at these agencies, they are not able to do their
jobs. They are not able to evaluate loans. It is a huge problem
for me, especially as I go out to investors, to say, here is my
plan for building a facility. You know, I am going to use this
contracting agency, this loan office. If they are not
considered reliable, then my plan is no longer reliable. Thank
you.
Mr. TRAN. And are you concerned that these cuts would cede
America's global STEM leadership to the PRC?
Ms. STOY. Absolutely. I mean, one thing I also think about
a lot is the training that comes from loans just like these.
You know, China has, I think, 80 universities dedicated to
mineral processing and mining. We don't have any. You know, if
we are serious about building talent, the talent that we need
to run our businesses, we need to have those funding agencies
in place.
Mr. TRAN. Yeah. In fact, President Trump's proposed cutting
of the National Science Foundation staff by half and reducing
its grants awards, which would threaten the agency's ability to
fund critical R&D nationwide and further advantage the PRC's
technological competition with the U.S.
Mr. Chairman, I asked for unanimous consent to insert an
R&D World article about the impacts of the proposal and
existing Trump cuts into the record.
Chairman WILLIAMS. So moved.
Mr. TRAN. Thank you.
Next question goes to Mr. Dowd. In September 2024, your
company received a 4.2 million contract from the Department of
Defense to expand domestic production of rare earth element
terbium, one of the most difficult to obtain rare earth
elements from recycled fluorescent light bulbs. Can you explain
how important government contract like this one are to your
business?
Mr. DOWD. Yeah, absolutely. You know, when we talk about
government support and kind of step back, big picture, you
know, 35 years ago, the leader of China said that rare earths
are going to be to China what oil is to the Middle East. And
that is before this electrified world that we live in today,
right? And so the government of China really instigated a
deliberate industrial policy to systematically capture this
market and the U.S. and the rest of the world now have to turn
on all across the supply chain, mine to metal, so that we are
no longer reliant upon China for the sources of material in any
way. And that is not going to happen overnight. Obviously, that
is going to take a decade or two or more. That is exactly what
China has done. But it really needs necessary long-term policy
that will transcend administrations, Republican and Democrat.
And specifically to us, terbium is only otherwise produced
in China. We are the only other company in the world producing
terbium. The Department of Defense award allowed us to be able
to scale up and produce what is necessary for military
applications, for the U.S. government in the defense sector.
Mr. TRAN. That is amazing. And you would agree that it is
important for us to continue federal investments in promoting
recycling and a circular economy for these critical minerals,
yes?
Mr. DOWD. I think turning on mining, recycling all sources
of material is vital for the future of the country.
Mr. TRAN. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Mr. Finstad from the great state of
Minnesota for 5 minutes.
Mr. FINSTAD. Thank you, Chairman Williams. Thank you for
holding this important hearing today, and thank you to the
witnesses for being here. As a Member of this Committee and
then also on the House Armed Services Committee, I am excited
to have you here today to discuss the important role critical
minerals play in our national security interests and our
overall economy in this country.
The state of Minnesota is home to a large majority of our
nation's domestic critical mineral reserves, including nickel,
cobalt, platinum, and copper. And after hearing Congressman
Stauber's comments, I used to think his roads were paved in
gold, but I guess they are going to be paved in nickel here now
soon up in Northern Minnesota. Those Minnesota grown companies
have been unable to renew their federal leases due to both the
Obama and Biden administrations pulling the rug out from
underneath them and putting up roadblocks.
So, with that being said, Mr. Kaye, the United States has
the strictest environmental and labor standards in the world,
yet we have become reliant on China and other adversarial
nations to control a large majority of the world's global
supply chain. In your experience, what environmental and labor
standards do these countries have in place for their
operations?
Mr. KAYE. They are very supportive of their homegrown
industries and China particularly has been extremely robust in
making it easy for it to happen. I believe that now it is an
all-hands-on-deck approach for this. It is regulatory, it is,
as my colleagues have said, support for the offtake agreements.
We are in discussions with multiple country companies both in
the defense industry and the automotive industry for supply
even if it takes 3, 4, 5 years to come on stream.
So what we would need is, as everyone has said, we need
support so that China cannot manipulate the price. We need fast
tracking to permit. Even Mountain Pass is partially owned by
the Chinese. Even some of their concentrate is shipped to China
to be processed. That can't be good.
So it is, I believe, public-private partnerships. I believe
it is regulatory relief. You know, as one of my colleagues
said, unchain us and let American entrepreneurialship, let us
do what we know how to do. And it is always now with an
environmental concern because the environment is sensitive. But
the pendulum has switched too far to that side. It can't take
29 years.
Mr. FINSTAD. So, Mr. Kaye, just as a follow up, just to be
very clear, so our strictest in the world environmental
standards, our state-of-the-art best that can be labor
standards in this country, China isn't competing at that same
level, correct?
Mr. KAYE. Absolutely not.
Mr. FINSTAD. Okay. So to my colleagues here, I mean, I
guess the question we have to ask ourselves, are we content
putting our head in the sand and pretending that they are
playing by the same rules? And the answer is no. And so it is
incumbent upon us and our government to do better in this area.
I would like to move on to Mr. Dowd. My constituents would
rather rely on our neighbors in northern Minnesota, heck, even
Nebraska, to extract and refine these minerals for our domestic
supply chain. We trust our neighbors. We can have a healthy
discussion about environmental standards, labor standards, and
then we can, through our government and through our policy and
through our process, make sure those standards are met. And we
can do that face to face, neighbor to neighbor.
Given your experience operating and innovating in this
space, what are the biggest challenges preventing American
companies right now from leading the world in critical mineral
development? And a lot of times we in this Committee, you know,
people will come and say, well, it is the regulations or it is
this or it is that. If you were to leave here today and say, I
got this off my chest, here is the four or five things that
this Committee and this Congress can help us do, what is it?
Mr. DOWD. Thank you, sir. You know, it is, as I said
earlier, China, 35 years ago, said that rare earths are to
China what oil is to the Middle East, and that is before this
electrified world we live in today. We are literally in the
infancy of this industry. It was referenced, perhaps a
Rockefeller moment, where this is oil 100 years ago. I think
that is absolutely to be true.
China controls this industry, one, because they made it a
deliberate policy, but, two, the Chinese government subsidizes
the industry, so there is no ability for this country to be
able to compete on level ground if our government is not also
part of that equation.
Mr. FINSTAD. My time is up here. I would just say this, we
are ripe for critical minerals permitting reform 2.0 in our
country. Let's reimagine the next 50 years and not try to fix
broken policies of the last hundred.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman's time is up.
Mr. FINSTAD. I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Mr. Olszewski from the great state of
Maryland for 5 minutes.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you
to our witnesses for joining us today. I appreciate the
opportunity to discuss America's economic and technological
growth alongside the need for a stable supply of critical
minerals.
In addition to my service here, I am honored to serve on
the House Foreign Affairs Committee and in the Africa
Subcommittee in particular, where we have recently also
discussed the need to support Africa's critical mineral sector
as a driver for economic growth. We know that this conversation
must also include conversations about support for families,
children, and local communities. These are groups that are
often exploited through forced labor and small-scale informal
mines across the continent, often in deadly work environments.
So I am concerned both about the action of this
administration working to dismantle the National Institute of
Occupational Health and Safety in terms of our own safety in
that work here in America. I also know that we are currently
facing a fairly chaotic landscape from a President who has
unilaterally enacted tariffs on nearly every import from every
country. These tariffs affect 35 of the 50 critical minerals
that we discussed today, which raises prices for American
businesses and consumers and causes higher prices for mining
and for refinery equipment.
The reality is that this is an important conversation, but
we cannot only mine our way out for reliable and ethical
critical mineral supply chain. So I look forward to working
with all of you in the years ahead, as well as my colleagues on
this critical issue, while doing so not backtracking on issues
like workers' rights and protections and removing some of the
barriers to our success.
To that point, I have two quick questions. One is on
tariffs and one is on grants. I will start with you, Dr. Stoy.
According to the U.S. Geological Service, the U.S. has little
to no reserves for many critical materials. So obviously, as we
discussed, we are trading to acquire them. Can you talk a
little bit about how tariffs affect our ability to buy them
from abroad?
Ms. STOY. Absolutely. Thank you so much for the question.
I am not an expert on tariffs. I am not an economist. But
what I can say is that when I look for investors, when mining
companies globally look for investors, investors are looking
for stable markets. They are looking for stable capital.
Refiners that I think personally is the most important thing
right now beyond just mining, you know, to build up these
facilities, we need stable markets. And tariffs, I think, pose
issues to that. And consistent pricing is important. We have
talked about a lot of different levers that the government can
use here, you know, stockpiles, ensuring price floors. There is
different things we can use here, but all of them can be
negatively impacted by tariffs.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. I appreciate that, and I want to make sure I
have it right. As a fellow ``ski,'' is it Mr. Minishski?
Mr. MUSHINSKI. Mushinski.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. Mushinski, Olszewski. We got it. Okay. I
appreciated your testimony and your calls for unlocking grants
for commercialization efforts. I think that is critically
important as one way to increase capital access for this work.
So I just want to, I guess, pose to you, would you be concerned
if very large grant makers, and in particular, thinking about
the federal government, right, if we froze our grants and other
funding sources, that certainly would be a challenge to that
and would erase some of the capital landscape? Is that a fair
assessment?
Mr. MUSHINSKI. Of course.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. Yeah. And so, yeah, just to that point, to
my colleagues, we are seeing a lot of the dismantling of these
kinds of programs, not just in this space, but across the
government. And I think we want to try to work with our
partners across the aisle to find ways that here and in other
spaces that I think the federal government actually does have a
key role to play in spurring innovation, safety, and success in
the private sector.
And so, again, I want to just thank our witnesses to today,
Mr. Chairman, for their insights and their wisdom. Look forward
to working with them and you and our colleagues in the years
ahead.
And with that, I will yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlemen yields back.
I now recognize Mr. Bresnahan from the great state of
Pennsylvania for 5 minutes.
Mr. BRESNAHAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and to the Ranking
Member, for holding today's hearing, and especially to the
witnesses for taking time out to come and testify today.
Securing our supply chains for rare earth minerals and
other critical resources is not just an economic priority. It
is a matter of national security. These materials are essential
components in a wide range of technologies, from smartphones to
electric vehicles and advanced defense systems. Yet, despite
their importance, the United States has fallen behind over
other nations, particularly China, in both the mining and
refining of these vital resources. China's dominant position in
these supply chains have given them significant leverage on the
global stage, leverage that can threaten our economic
competitiveness and our security. To address this challenge, we
must bring about commonsense permitting reform that allows us
to responsibly develop these resources here at home.
My district lies within the Marcellus Shale region in
Pennsylvania. Fracking has been a key driver of our country's
energy dominance and Pennsylvania's economic growth for the
last 20 years. But fracking can potentially deliver more than
just oil and gas. Recent studies by the National Energy
Technology Laboratory have found that the water used in
fracking can unlock up to 1,160 metric tons of lithium. That is
almost 40 percent of the current demand for lithium, which is
3,000 metric tons per year. This is comparable to the lithium
produced in the brine ponds in Chile, the world's second
largest lithium producer.
In Wayne County in my district, there is roughly $1 billion
of natural gas deposits that we cannot tap into because of
governors in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware
have banned it based on some science and under pressure from
some environmental activists. If our country is going to reduce
emissions and have a cleaner grid, we need these rare earth
minerals like lithium to achieve these goals.
Sadly, the prior administration stifled their own green
energy goals with overregulation by trying to ban natural gas
exports, trying to ban fracking, the IRA's methane tax, and use
of ESG's metrics and investments, and not approving pipelines
quickly enough. Instead of American energy powered by clean
American fuel sources and rare earth minerals processed under
the American environmental standards, we have been forced to
rely on Chinese imports, which are produced under horrendous
environments and labor conditions.
Our goal must be to provide essential raw materials that
fuel our economy, support our national defense, empower the
innovative technologies of tomorrow. We can, we must, and
uphold our commitment to environmental stewardship while
advancing economic growth. The false choice between economic
progress and protecting our environment has held us back far
too long.
With that, I am going to start with my first question to
Mr. Dowd. I want to echo on Mr. Finstad's questions a little
bit earlier. If you can point to just one specific action that
Congress can deploy to help us in the progress, would it be
towards workforce development? Would it be permitting? Would it
be regulation? If you can point to just one thing, and you had
mentioned China in the prior answer, but is there anything else
beyond China that we can be of assistance with?
Mr. DOWD. Yeah, as a rare earth element separation company,
at least the way we do, how we do our refining, there is no
regulatory or regulation that is permitting us from doing what
we are doing. The workforce is really not a challenge where we
are, fortunately. I would say the big thing is continuing, as
the government has through the Department of Defense and
Department of Energy, funding companies like us to boost the
defense industrial base to have the capability and the capacity
in this country to compete with China.
Mr. BRESNAHAN. What do you mean ``funding''? Is that
through grant processes? Is that through R&D? What kind of
funding do you reference?
Mr. DOWD. Yeah, sure. Our company has received a handful of
grants and awards over the last handful of years, which have
really furthered us to where we are today. The Congressman
earlier mentioned we received a Defense Production Act through
the Department of Defense for $8.67 million back in September.
That really enabled us to be able to produce terbium, which
cannot be found anywhere else in the world other than China.
Mr. BRESNAHAN. So why is that the responsibility of the
American taxpayer to provide economic grants to a company like
yours?
Mr. DOWD. Yeah, I think it is a real question for the
Committee or for the country in terms of the responsibility of
government to help fund what is necessary to be able to have
this capability in this country. And I think if the government
does not compete, given that the Chinese government is
subsidizing the industry, we will be fully reliant on China for
rare earths for a long period of time. And that is obviously a
geopolitical supply chain issue.
Mr. BRESNAHAN. My time has expired. I yield.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Ms. Goodlander from the great state of New
Hampshire for 5 minutes.
Ms. GOODLANDER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to
our witnesses for being here today for this important hearing.
You have each testified that the rare earth challenge is a
really critical one to our national security. Our supply chain
vulnerability is core to addressing, to keep our country safe.
But it is also an extraordinary opportunity that small
businesses across our country are seizing. And I am seeing it
all across my home state of New Hampshire.
What I would say is our hearing today, the title of the
hearing today, I note is ``Securing America's Mineral Future:
Unlocking the Economic Value Beneath Our Feet.'' The economic
value I think is more than just beneath our feet. And I saw
this firsthand in visiting an extraordinary service-disabled,
veteran-owned small business in the Monadnock Region of my
state that more than 6 years ago predicted that we would have a
germanium crisis in this country. Germanium is used, as many of
you know, in high-speed computer chips, plastics, and a wide
range of military applications from night vision devices to
satellite imagery sensors.
My constituents started a company, they self-funded the
research and development costs of a cost-effective, ecofriendly
germanium recycling effort and they began production. They have
encountered a lot of challenges in getting the support that
they need for small businesses to actually tackle this. And I
wanted to ask you, Mr. Dowd, can you speak to your experience?
I also serve on the Armed Services Committee and, knock on
wood, we are going to have a National Defense Authorization Act
this year where we have an opportunity to really take a look at
ways in which we can improve the way that the Department of
Defense does business with small businesses in our country. Can
you speak to your experience contracting with the Department of
Defense and what challenges you encountered?
Mr. DOWD. Yeah, our experience with the Department of
Defense and, specifically, receiving funding through the
Defense Production Act has really been incredibly positive. I
really don't have a negative thing to say about that.
Ms. GOODLANDER. Really?
Mr. DOWD. I can only speak from the award that we are
currently in and our experience in receiving that award in the
last year.
Ms. GOODLANDER. Dr. Stoy, could you tell us a little bit
about the challenges you have encountered in contracting with
the federal government and getting the kind of investment that
small businesses like yours need to bring us to the next
generation of recycling critical minerals?
Ms. STOY. Absolutely. My experience has largely been very
positive in applying for funding. I will say there were--there
have been a handful of Department of Energy grants that
required really an extensive amount of paperwork for small
businesses to apply. As an example, I think there was a grant
that was for $500,000, which is not--it is a sizable amount of
money, but not huge, that I think I ended up writing, you know,
100 pages of content for on, you know, economic development.
And, you know, 500K for a 3-year grant is not really enough
money to have an outsized impact on, you know, your local
community. So I think there are ways to streamline grant
processes that would make it easier for small businesses to
take advantage of.
Ms. GOODLANDER. Well, we welcome any and all ideas that you
have on this front. We are all about cracking down on waste,
fraud, and abuse, and making it easier for small businesses
like yours. Just note that the funding cuts that we have seen
across our federal government have made it very difficult for
these important programs to reach their intended small business
recipients.
I want to ask you about the impact of the President's
unilateral trade wars, which have impacted 35 of 50 critical
minerals, 10 of 16 rare earth elements. You have each spoken to
just the time that it takes to build up our domestic
manufacturing base. Many on our Committee have supported an
exemption for small businesses. But I wanted to ask you to the
President's unilateral tariffs because they threatened to put
so many essential small businesses out of business. I want to
ask you about the uncertainty that you are seeing across the
industry and the markets and the customers who you work with in
this moment of absolute uncertainty for our country.
Ms. STOY. Yeah, you know, customers, investors, everyone is
looking for stability and these tariffs add uncertainty. One of
the big things--I have been a little bit insulated because I
have been housed at Argonne National Lab, which has been a
tremendous opportunity that--you know, it is a very small
program. There is maybe five innovators per year. This is not--
it is not a big enough program for many small businesses to
benefit from that if they have to buy their own equipment. I
mean, I am deeply impressed that someone from your state was
able to self-fund a recycling project. So I think that that is
something that we need to work on is adding that stability.
Ms. GOODLANDER. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
I now recognize Mr. Downing from the great state of Montana
for 5 minutes.
Mr. DOWNING. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the
witnesses. I come from Montana, the Treasure State. If you want
it, we can probably grow it or mine it or produce it. So we are
blessed with incredible reserves in critical minerals.
So I am going to start in my backyard with Mr. Kaye. You
are on the front lines of critical minerals discovery and
extraction in Montana. Your company, U.S. Critical Materials,
is set to develop the Sheep Creek site in Ravalli County into a
major producer of rare earth elements. In your testimony, you
note the remarkable nature of the mineral concentrations at the
Sheep Creek site. Can you explain to us more about the unique
abundance of rare earth elements at the site?
Mr. KAYE. Thank you for your question. We have
concentrations that range about 9 percent and in some cases
higher. That means as a comparative to Mountain Pass, they
average about 5 percent. It literally, as confirmed by
Activation Labs, the blue chip lab for evaluating purity of the
product, and Idaho National Labs who did extensive work in our
(phonetic 25:29) ore, which, by the way, is very low in thorium
and very high in grade. That means we are below the standards
required to seek nuclear regulatory authority, which is a boon
to us in being able to get our product online quickly.
It is an extraordinary deposit because it is carbonatites.
And carbonatites, geologically, 150 million years ago have come
up from the earth, have penetrated through dikes and fissures
and have extended above the surface within just three adits,
which are horizontal tunnels that have been drilled into the
side of the mountain 35 years ago, there are 62 carbonatites.
We have sampled them all. They all show mineralization down at
depth. And there is a theory going right now that we are
working to prove this summer that there is a continuous source
that lies below. So while----
Mr. DOWNING. Hey, just in the interest of time, the
critical, and I appreciate that, the critical minerals mined at
Sheep Creek support--how do they support the manufacturing of
technologies critical to national security?
Mr. KAYE. The answer to that is samarium, which is not
found in the United States. We have an abundant supply.
Gallium, which, as mentioned earlier, has 3,800 military uses.
The Chinese have banned it to export about a year ago. We have
180 to 380 parts per million. We are working with Idaho
National Labs now. We expect that we will be able to extract
gallium and be able to present it for the use of this country
within this year.
Mr. DOWNING. So on that note, how are small businesses
uniquely positioned to initiate American critical mineral
independence from China?
Mr. KAYE. We have the entrepreneurial spirit that has grown
this country. We are entrepreneurs. We understand risk-reward
and we have the attitude of it has to happen, we will make it
happen. And with the support of the regulatory authorities,
state government, and the like, it will occur.
Mr. DOWNING. Thank you, sir. In my district, we have
experienced firsthand the difficulties of competing with
mineral dumping by foreign adversaries. The Sibanye Stillwater
Mine in Stillwater County is the United States' only platinum
and palladium mine. Unfortunately, Russia's dumping of cheap
minerals into the international market forced the Sibanye
Stillwater owners of the mine to scale back its operations and
lay off 700 workers at the end of last year.
I am going to move to Mr. Mushinski. In your testimony, you
outline how your company, Rare Element Resources, experienced
similar hardships from Chinese dumping. Can you elaborate on to
what degree you believe this dumping effort by Chinese
producers was coordinated and deliberate?
Mr. MUSHINSKI. I think it was 100 percent coordinated and
100 percent deliberate. If you go back to the 2016 timeframe,
when there were restrictions on--I am sorry, it may not be
before 2016, the Chinese deliberately put restrictions on
exports of rare earths. That spiked the price. As with any
mining business, when the price goes up, the exploration goes
up, the technology goes up, and it is a continuous curve.
The mining companies, Mountain Pass at the time, took off.
Their stock went over $100 a share. A mere 4 years later, the
Chinese absolutely flooded the market. The prices cratered,
Mountain Pass went bankrupt. That is when our company almost
went bankrupt in the middle of our permitting process.
Mr. DOWNING. Unfortunately, I have run out of time. Mr.
Chair, I yield.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I recognize Mr. Cisneros from the great state of California
for 5 minutes.
Mr. CISNEROS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As a Member of the House Armed Services Committee and
previously serving at the Department of Defense, I deeply care
about our national security. And I understand and agree with
the importance of securing our critical mineral supply chain
and I support the small businesses helping address this vital
need. However, this hearing is not focused on what we can
actually do to help these small businesses, but rather it is
another attempt to infomercial the President's agenda to
deregulate.
The House Natural Resource Committee already had a hearing
on domestic mining for U.S. national security on February 6.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee already had a hearing
on enhancing our critical mineral supply chains on May 21. If
we want to stretch the bounds of the House Small Business
Committee to also talk about critical minerals, let's talk
about federal funding opportunities like the small business
research grants that help companies like Rivalia. This hearing
is not talking about SBA programs to help these small
businesses. It is not talking about funding from other agencies
for these small businesses. It is not diving into federal
contracting to support these businesses. I urge my colleagues
to engage with us in meaningful discussions on how to better
support small business, not just rubber stamp an agenda.
So, Ms. Stoy, could you kind of go into detail a little bit
more about SBIR, how it helped you get started, and really the
importance of programs like this to encourage investment in
other businesses like yours that could help, like you said,
recycle these minerals instead of them just going to waste
after they have been used?
Ms. STOY. Absolutely. You know, I founded Rivalia using a
blend of government funding, SBIR funding, and private venture
capital. I think, you know, to prove that you should be a
company in the market, you need to have that kind of buy-on
from, you know, a private group. But, you know, programs like
the SBIR help front load some of the high capital costs that
come with hard tech startups. I mean, we are all in mining. You
know, this requires equipment, this requires labs, this
requires resources.
The SBIR program has been incredibly helpful to me. There
is also some programs offered alongside the SBIR program,
including a business boot camp where they help you do customer
discovery, engage with your customers and the partners. You
know, we are dealing with very complex supply chains here. And
learning how to have those conversations was something I
learned through the NSF SBIR program.
The Chain Reactions Innovations Program that I am a part of
at Argonne National Lab, the LEAP program is also, I think,
incredibly useful as a tool to help small businesses access
resources that they otherwise wouldn't have access to.
Mr. CISNEROS. Thank you very much for that. And again, I
think the importance of research and funding these grants in
order to help small businesses like yours get started is of
vital importance and something that we should be discussing
today more than about how regulation is getting in the way.
Mr. Mushinski, hopefully I said that right, I hear your
company is exploring training and education programs with
universities in conjunction with the Bear Lodge Project. Can
you speak to the importance of a strong STEM workforce in
career and technical education programs for projects like that?
Mr. MUSHINSKI. Thank you for the question. We do, we
currently have three interns from the University of Wyoming and
South Dakota, the School of Mines, which is dedicated to
minerals and mining. And we live--our process and our facility
is in a very small town of Upton, Wyoming, 800-and-something
people. We are relatively close to other population centers.
But the ability to recruit STEM employees is difficult in that
area and that is a very important issue for us. Where do we
locate our final plant because of those issues?
We fortunately live in a very pro mining state, which is
Wyoming. And the governor and the University of Wyoming and all
the Members within that legislation are very supportive to us.
You know, it is junior colleges, it is colleges, it is
technical trades. A mining and processing facility is not just
STEM. You need all the blue collar work as well, and that is a
very important concern.
Mr. CISNEROS. No, thank you for that answer. I am a big
believer in education and training and everything that we need
to put into it. You said this isn't a field that most people
probably grow up thinking they are going to get into, but it is
vital importance to make sure that we invest in the technology
and the training for that.
So with that, I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Mr. Patronis from the great state of
Florida for 5 minutes.
Mr. PATRONIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all
for participating in speed dating. It is kind of back and forth
and, you know, the input that we are getting is really helpful.
For the last 8 years I regulated mining and blasting in the
state of Florida. And I have learned of the proponents and the
opponents and specifically understanding, at least in the case
of the state of Florida, whenever we have what seems to be good
policy or good proposed legislation, how it dramatically could
potentially change your cost of business or where your
customers may do their business. I look at what you are
providing. You are providing quality jobs in a heavily
regulated environment with a sensitivity to supply chain needs
and also what you need to do to balance the environment. And I
don't envy what you do, but I am glad you are able to find a
margin to make you want to continue pursuing it.
I have always been a big proponent for predictability in
the timelines when it comes to permitting. I don't want to
belabor this because I know it was kind of touched on a little
bit by you, Mr. Kaye, but I am going to ask you to elaborate
more on it and maybe even a little bit of a comparison of the
timeline of how China has the ability to bring goods to market
versus the United States and how much of a difference there is
in that timeline because does this create an advantage for
China?
Mr. KAYE. I have a couple of comments that I think would be
relevant. One of which is that to the former--the congressman
over there who said, how do you attract young people? Okay, the
answer is technology. Technology makes it a lot more glamorous
than a pick and a shovel. We are using artificial intelligence,
predictive analytics for fast tracking exploration. It brings a
whole other kind of person to the table.
Secondly, today we made an announcement that retired four-
star General Steven Townsend has become a senior advisor to us.
He testified in front of the Senate some years ago about the
need for critical minerals. He told us that in Africa when he
was running AFRICOM, he wanted to find out how many mines, rare
earth and critical mineral mines, were owned by the United
States versus China. He found none owned by the United States,
all owned by China, except for one, a Canadian company, which
turned out when he put his intelligence team to it, to be a
front for the Chinese. So somebody asked earlier about Africa.
As to your question, fast tracking is everything right now.
Okay. Speed and time. Speed is most important. Time is our
enemy. And, therefore, the ability to have access to the
decision-makers, to be able to have a meeting such as this, to
be able to understand what their requirements are and how we
can fast track application for DPA grants or Department of
Defense or the movement of money from, you know, environment to
defense is critically important. How can we manage the
bureaucracy so that it makes it easier for us instead of
cutting the red tape and drowning in the things that all my
colleagues have just talked about, years and years of going
through these things? It is getting better.
Mr. CISNEROS. And it is not--the technology's not going
away and the demand is not shrinking. I guess my also concern
is just, if you can just expand on it a little bit is the
national security concerns we have about being beholden to
China on our pipeline.
Mr. KAYE. Yeah. Thank you. The F-35 requires 920 pounds of
rare earths. A submarine is 5,000. The new F-47, which is now
being proposed, requires large amounts of rare earths. The
newest radar that we are working on requires rare earths. The
missiles, we expended a tremendous amount of our armaments with
Israel, with the Ukraine war, et cetera. You got to rebuild the
stockpiles, and yet they require rare earths.
So it is got to be domestic supply, and it is got to happen
now. We don't have 5 more years. And so, therefore, that is why
we are focused so hard on being able to deliver gallium by the
end of this year, because it is required in 3,800 different
defense systems that our government requires.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman's time is up.
Mr. CISNEROS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. KAYE. Thank you.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Next, I recognize Dr. Morrison from the
great state of Minnesota for 5 minutes.
Ms. MORRISON. Thank you, Chairman Williams and Ranking
Member Velazquez, for holding this hearing. And I want to thank
our witnesses for being here and taking the time to testify and
share your expertise about the critical mineral industry.
This is a topic we will return to again and again as demand
for critical minerals continues to grow during the coming
decades. The International Energy Agency projects that growing
investments in clean energy will double global demand for
minerals by 2040. Growing demand for electric vehicles could
increase the need for minerals such as lithium and graphite by
as much as 4,000 percent over the next few decades.
And by the way, I am thrilled by the enthusiasm for mining
critical minerals I have heard here. So I assume that everyone
on this Committee will be voting against clawing back the IRA
and clean energy tax credits.
One of the mines that my colleague from Minnesota, Mr.
Stauber, referenced, is on public lands in the watershed of the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the most visited
wilderness in the United States and a major economic engine in
Northeastern Minnesota. One point I want to make regarding
proposed hard rock mines in Minnesota is that this kind of
mining has never been done in Minnesota before. We have a proud
tradition of iron ore taconite mining. It is very different
kind of mining that carries very different risks than copper,
nickel, and other hard rock mining.
And the proposed mines, respectfully to my other colleague
from Minnesota, are not Minnesota grown. They are owned by
Glencore, Rio Tinto, and Antofagasta. These are not small
businesses. These are not homegrown, and they are not American
companies. They are international mining conglomerates with
some of the worst labor and environmental records in the world.
I would like to point out a study that found that the
proposed mine in the watershed of Minnesota's Boundary Waters
Canoe Area Wilderness would cause a net economic loss in the
long term, due in part to the job and revenue losses, for the
thriving outdoor recreation industry that that area depends on.
So, Mr. Chairman, I request unanimous consent to insert the
study into the record.
Chairman WILLIAMS. So moved.
Ms. MORRISON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Stoy, can you comment on some of the tradeoffs of
unrestricted, minimally regulated mining in terms of
environment impacts? Are there any negatives or is it just all
upside?
Ms. STOY. Thanks for the question. Wouldn't that be
wonderful if there were only upsides? You know, as we discussed
securing a domestic supply chain for rare earths, you know, we
have to talk about these trade-offs. There are benefits. You
know, we can increase our domestic supply long term. We can
reduce our dependence on foreign sources. We can support
national security. We might bring jobs and investment to rural
areas that didn't have access to that before. But, of course,
there are significant costs. You know, there is the timeline.
We have to consider what is going to happen environmentally
here.
The environmental impact, you know, we are talking about
disturbing large areas of land. We are consuming water, we are
producing hazardous tailings that include radioactive elements,
like thorium, uranium. This is, you know, especially concerning
and sensitive ecosystem or near indigenous lands or, frankly,
anywhere where people live.
There is also, you know, community opposition. Many
proposed mines face strong pushback from Tribal Nations,
environmental groups, and local residents who are simply
concerned about the place they live, you know, water quality,
land access, the long-term plan for these sites. These projects
carry legal, social, and reputational risks.
In contrast, recovering rare earths from existing
industrial waste avoids new land disturbance. It leverages
materials already above the ground and offers a faster, cleaner
pathway to supply security. So while I think new mining may
play a role in the long term and, of course, in the entire
economic picture, we have to be clear-eyed about the costs and
pursue lower impact alternatives when they are available.
Ms. MORRISON. I appreciate that perspective. Thank you.
I want to just take a moment before my time expires to brag
about a Minnesota company that is doing innovative work to
reduce our dependence on critical minerals. Niron Magnetics is
the world's only producer of high-performance rare earth-free
permanent magnets, which are used in everything from cars to
audio systems to medical devices. Niron Magnetics uses
technology that was developed through research at the
University of Minnesota and they received an SBIR award in 2024
to explore the use of their magnets in DOD applications,
exemplifying, I think, how well-designed innovations system can
support our small businesses and address pressing issues.
Mr. Dowd, we have talked a little bit about SBIR and STTR
programs. Can you just speak to how federal grants and awards
can be mutually beneficial to both small businesses and
government agencies?
Mr. DOWD. Yeah. For my company, who has been in business
for about a dozen years, we have had a handful of grants and
awards with the Department of Defense and with the Department
of Energy, which has really helped further us to where we are
today. And I am not sure without the support of the government,
we would have been able to achieve what we have achieved.
Because what we do is not easy. If it was, we wouldn't be
having this issue today, this conversation today. A lot of R&D
goes into getting to where we are today. Thank you.
Ms. MORRISON. Thank you, Mr. Dowd. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
I recognize Mr. Alford from the great state of Missouri for
5 minutes.
Mr. ALFORD. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for
our witnesses for being here today.
Rare earth minerals, elements like neodymium, cerium,
lanthanum are critical for modern technology from smartphones
to electric vehicles to defense systems. Missouri's role in
their mining has a rich history and untapped potential, but
government overreach is holding us back. In the mid-20th
century, Missouri was a leader in rare earth exploration. The
Pea ridge Mine in Washington County, operational since the
1960s, revealed significant deposits of rare earths alongside
iron ore. And by the 1980s, studies confirmed Missouri's
geological potential with deposits in the southeast region
rivaling global hotspots.
However, low prices and foreign competition, mainly from
China, stalled development. China now dominates, producing more
than 60 percent of the world's rare earths, leaving the U.S.
dependent on imports for more than 70 percent of our supply.
Today, Missouri stands at a crossroads. The Pea Ridge Mine,
now dormant, holds an estimated 600,000 tons of rare earth
oxides, enough to bolster domestic supply. This is just outside
my district.
Private companies are eager to restart operations, but
progress is slow. Why? Excessive regulation. Permitting for new
mines can take over a decade in the United States of America
compared to just a year in competitors' nations. Environmental
reviews, while important, are often redundant, delaying
projects without code clear benefits. Meantime, communist China
tightens export controls, threatening our supply chains.
The government must act decisively. First, streamline
permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act to cut
timelines without sacrificing safety. Secondly, offer tax
incentives for rare earth processing facilities as refining is
a bottleneck. Third, fund research into cleaner extraction
methods to address environmental concerns. These steps will
unleash Missouri's potential, create jobs, and secure our
national interest. Missouri's rare earths are a sleeping giant.
It is my intent to help them wake up by getting government out
of the way.
Mr. Kaye, critical minerals are not only essential for the
long-term economic success of the U.S., but also for its
national security. Could you please explain the importance of
the resources in your minds to our national security, sir?
Mr. KAYE. Thank you for your question. We spoke about
gallium. Gallium is critical. There is no supply here in the
United States. The Chinese have embargoed it. Our gallium is in
a very pure mineralized form found in the carbonatites
themselves, which means it is relatively easy to bring them out
and properly refine them.
Samarium, there is no supply here in the United States. And
so we have the same situation with that.
Third is our government understands now, particularly the
Department of Defense, and the reason that General Townshend
has become an advisor to us is exactly that reason. He
understands what the problems are. He understands what national
defense means. And the Chinese are betting that we are going to
keep slow like we have been. But that is not going to happen
anymore.
And so we believe that the 17 rare earths and natural and
critical minerals that are important to all aspects, artificial
intelligence, chips, new radar, new aircraft, new ships, new
technologies leading to the future, have to be domestically
sourced. And we and our colleagues are determined to make that
happen. Our attitude now these days is while we are all
friendly competitors, we are all Americans. And whatever we can
do to help each other, whether it is technology, whether it is
cooperation, whether it is working together to make us
critically mineral independent again and, therefore, critically
mineral sovereign again, is our number one mission. And so we
are all working toward accomplishing that goal. And thank you
for your question.
Mr. ALFORD. Thank you, Mr. Kaye, Mr. Dowd, Mr. Mushinski,
and our other witness, we really appreciate you being here
today. This is a national security issue.
And with that, I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlemen yields back.
I now recognize Ms. Simon from the great state of
California for 5 minutes.
Ms. SIMON. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is an honor to be
sitting by you. And I do believe that you have the best tie in
the room today, sir. It is amazing. Yes, sorry. I apologize.
I am so happy to be having this conversation with you all.
In fact, as you all were talking, what came to me was a writing
from Bernice Johnson Reagon, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. And
she was one of the leaders of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee during the Civil Rights Movement. And
one of her writings was called ``Battered Earth.'' And one of
the stanzas in the piece said, ``If the earth could run away,
she would be running for her life.'' And I really appreciate
this very timely conversation.
I also appreciate, Dr. Stoy, you talked about being
supported in your graduate studies as a young scientist. And it
is not missed on me or anyone on this dais that you are the
only woman on the panel. My daughter is in the biological
sciences. My eldest, go Aggies at UC Davis, and she told me she
was one of the few folks who crossed the stage an undergrad
focused again on our earth, on biology.
I wonder what we would be talking about if, in fact, the
United States paid homage to young scientists and fully
supported their educations. And once they got out of grad
school, fully nurtured their labs, fully nurtured your staffing
process, provided support for your insurances. I wonder what we
would be thinking about as we try to juxtapose where we are in
terms of earthing rare minerals with our adversaries like
China. It is hard to compare and contrast when you have
countries around the world that fully support young people
advancing in the sciences. But like Bernice Johnson Reagon
says, our adversaries don't care about the earth. And if she
could run away, she absolutely would.
You know, just a few months ago, I was able to visit an
amazing small business in West Oakland, where I am from. A
small company that has developed fascinating technology to
extract lithium directly from brine using significantly less
land and water than conventional evaporation methods. And in
talking to the founders, young, brilliant, scrappy, they don't
wear suits, they wear Converse, they are amazing and super
smart and they have PhDs and they are physicians. That is crazy
smart, amazing folks, right, again, in a low-income community
in the Bay Area doing everything that they could to create a
sustainable model moving forward. They talked to me about how
difficult it was not just in the last administration, but also
in this administration to acquire resources. In fact, they are
waiting on money right now to keep their staffing levels up.
We are talking not just about rare minerals, we are talking
about a finite Earth. And so when you have innovators, like
some of you all on this panel, committed, committed to
sustainable practices, committed to new opportunities and
innovations that will literally save, save the lands of our
dear country, you can't go in a gazillion times, right? The
Earth is, in fact, finite.
I am curious, Dr. Stoy, when you talk about--well, you
talked about, I would say in your testimony rather beautifully,
how, in fact, it was difficult in this moment, and it has been,
and a number of you have also repeated this, to receive the
resources that you need and deserve to move forward. Dr. Stoy,
can you talk to me about, in the perfect world, how would,
whether it is SBA or other government agencies, truly support
young innovators like yourself? So that instead of sitting at a
computer writing 100 pages for $500,000 divided by 3, and those
of us who staffed institutions, we know that that is only a
couple of staff with a little bit of health insurance and not
for their kids, maybe just for them, what would it be like if
you could truly be the scientist that you were trained to be?
What would you need?
Ms. STOY. So I think I have talked about a lot of visions I
have had. You know, in a dream world I am running a team of a
dozen people. We are all in the lab. We have folks dedicated on
building out the rest of the supply chain, talking to all the
partners, building out the network. You know, this is something
that I, instead of using government funding, I will go out and
fundraise later this summer, you know, a couple million dollars
to start building out that team. And I am trading that for
equity, and I am trading that for, you know--that is betting
against the money I will need in the future to build a plant.
You know, there is--for startups, you know, you can be scrappy,
but you can only do so much with so little money.
So I appreciate your question and I think, you know,
betting on young innovators is a win for us.
Ms. SIMON. I appreciate you and I appreciate all those who
came out today to listen, and those are folks who came to
testify.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
I would like to thank our witnesses for their testimony and
for appearing before us today. Without objection, Members have
5 legislative days to submit additional materials and written
questions for the witnesses to the Chair, which will be
forwarded to the witnesses. I ask the witnesses to please
respond promptly.
So if there is no further business, without objection, this
Committee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:02 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
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