[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 46 (Thursday, March 7, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16564-16565]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04883]


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EXPORT-IMPORT BANK


Information Request on Financing Support for Critical Minerals 
Projects

AGENCY: Export-Import Bank of the United States.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: To assist the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) 
in supporting critical minerals transactions, which are crucial to the 
supply chains of several of the Congressionally mandated 
Transformational Export Areas in EXIM's Charter, EXIM seeks information 
on the financing gaps faced by project sponsors, users of critical 
minerals, and suppliers to critical minerals projects.

DATES: Comments are due on May 6, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may submit comments on this transaction 
electronically on www.regulations.gov. To submit a comment, enter 
``Information Request on Financing Support for Critical Minerals'' 
under the heading ``Enter Keyword or ID'' and select Search. Follow the 
instructions provided at the Submit a Comment screen. Please include 
your name, company name (if any) and ``Information Request on Financing 
Support for Critical Minerals Projects'' on any attached document. 
Comments can also be sent by email or mail to Scott Condren, 
[email protected], Export-Import Bank of the United States, 811 
Vermont Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20571.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information, 
please contact Scott Condren, [email protected], 202-509-4227.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In EXIM's 2019 reauthorization, Congress 
directed the agency to create the China and Transformational Exports 
Program

[[Page 16565]]

(CTEP) and use its tools and authorities to advance the comparative 
leadership of the United States with respect to the People's Republic 
of China (PRC), or support United States innovation, employment, and 
technological standards through direct exports in 10 transformational 
export areas. These export areas include:
     Artificial intelligence.
     Biotechnology.
     Biomedical sciences.
     Wireless communications equipment (including 5G or 
subsequent wireless technologies).
     Quantum computing.
     Renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy storage.
     Semiconductor and semiconductor machinery manufacturing.
     Emerging financial technologies (including technologies 
that facilitate financial inclusion through increased access to capital 
and financial services; data security and privacy; payments, the 
transfer of funds, and associated messaging services; and efforts to 
combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism).
     Water treatment and sanitation (including technologies and 
infrastructure to reduce contaminants and improve water quality).
     High-performance computing;
     Associated services necessary for use of any of the 
foregoing exports.
    Additionally, EXIM reviews over the last few years indicate that 
critical minerals are a crucial component of multiple transformational 
export areas--and the U.S. lags the PRC in the proven reserves, mining, 
and processing of almost all critical minerals. Thus, EXIM has 
prioritized critical minerals that are part of the supply chain for 
transformational export areas and clearly align to the capacity to 
produce and foreign demand for U.S. goods and services in 
transformational export area industries.
    Therefore, to understand how EXIM financing can better support U.S. 
exporters in this sector, diversify supply chains, and ensure access to 
critical minerals by U.S. users, EXIM is seeking public comment on the 
financing gaps stakeholders face. EXIM has identified specific 
questions for specific stakeholders but welcomes feedback from all 
relevant stakeholders not specifically identified here.
    (A) For U.S. exporters to critical minerals projects:
    (1) What part of the supply chain do you supply (e.g., mining, 
refining, or processing)?
    (2) What goods and services do you provide to such projects (e.g., 
services, capital equipment, intermediate components, consumables)?
    (3) What are the financing challenges, if any, that prevent 
securing sales with foreign buyers?
    (4) Are you aware of or facing competition backed by foreign 
government financing?
    (5) If so, please identify the competition and the type of foreign 
government financing provided.
    (6) Have you previously used financing tools from the Export-Import 
Bank of the United States?
    (7) If you have not utilized EXIM financing, please explain why not 
(e.g., no need, fees too high, could not meet policy criteria such as 
content).
    (B) For U.S.-based users of critical minerals:
    (1) Which critical minerals are most important to your operations?
    (2) In what geographies are you most likely to seek access to those 
minerals?
    (3) Is there now or expected to be in the future competitive U.S.-
based sources of those minerals?
    (4) What financial hurdles are there to obtaining critical 
minerals? Please distinguish between short-term hurdles (such as 
insufficient access to working capital to import specific cargos) and 
longer-term (such as requirements of foreign projects for large down 
payments in exchange for long-term supply contracts).
    (5) What impact does lack of access to critical minerals have on 
your operations, particularly regarding employment and exports?
    (6) To what extent are you aware of foreign competitors gaining 
access to critical minerals resources via foreign government support 
(such as lending to a foreign mine conditional on selling output to a 
particular company)?
    (7) What form does such support take?
    EXIM encourages respondents, when addressing the points above, 
unless raising other challenges to financing critical minerals 
transactions, to identify which point they are responding to by using 
the same numbers and heading as set forth above. For example, a user of 
critical minerals submitting comments responsive to (4), ``What 
financial hurdles are there to obtaining critical minerals'', would use 
that same text as a heading followed by the respondent's specific 
comments responding to it. This formatting will assist EXIM in more 
easily reviewing and summarizing the comments received in response to 
these specific points of inquiry.

Scott Condren,
Vice President, Policy Analysis Division, Office of Policy Analysis and 
International Relations.
[FR Doc. 2024-04883 Filed 3-6-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6690-01-P