Cortez Masto looking to strengthen domestic green energy, rare-earth elements supply chain dominated by China

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is pushing for domestic production of rare earth magnets, a group of 17 chemical elements considered to be critical for the green energy transition.

Simon Jowitt, an associate professor of economic geology at UNR, says that Nevada has roughly 200,000 former and active mine sites. Something, he says, we should be talking more about.

“The stuff we mined 100 years ago around Virginia City, well, we only looked for silver and stuff like that, but right now we want half a dozen other metals that may be present in this mine waste,” Jowitt says.

What Jowitt is talking about are rare earth elements. While called “rare”, they are not in fact rare in the Earth’s crust and can be found in many places, but rather, the processing makes them “rare.” Rare earth minerals are processed primarily from ores and minerals, and are present in very low concentrations and are combined; this means that their extraction and separation are expensive. Once complete, they have unique magnetic and electronic properties that make them crucial for many uses.

“We use them in things like laptop hard drives, green technology, electric motors, and things like wind turbines for energy generation,” lists Jowitt.

Right now, China is responsible for 70% of global rare earth elements, with the United States only producing 14%.

“We’re actually shipping stuff from California to China for processing right now and getting the stuff back,” Jowitt said.

What we need to do, according to Jowitt, is both mine and process these elements here. Something Catherine Cortez Masto is pushing for close to home.

“We can’t keep relying on China for components we need to power our defense systems and drive our clean-energy economy,” the senator said in a statement.

In California there’s a deposit called Mountain Pass Mine, located just 50 miles from Vegas. It has operated on and off since the 70s. Cortez Masto is pushing for legislation known as the Rare Earth Magnet Production Tax Credit Act. What it would do is provide a $20 per kilogram production tax credit for rare earth magnets made in the United States, reducing our reliance on China.

“At every stage of mining, it’s like coffee. The coffee beans have a certain amount of value but when you roast them, grind them, when you package them, and when you put them in a cup of Starbucks, the value increases at each step. It’s the same with the rare earth element oar. The processed rare earth elements, the individual rare earth elements, the magnets, and then the wind turbine, at each step the value increases and all that is happening in China.” explained Jowitt.

Operated by MP Materials, Mountain Pass mine employs about 600 people who live in Nevada. That number could drastically increase according to Jowitt.

“We don’t have a secure supply of these elements, we’re losing out on employment because if you have those elements coming in for manufacturing, that manufacturing is happening in China when it could be happening here,” said Jowitt.

With all mining there is always environmental concerns. Rare earth element mining requires large amounts of energy and water, and generate large quantities of waste. Additionally, they are often mixed with different radioactive and hazardous elements such as uranium, thorium, arsenic and other heavy metals which pose high health and environmental pollution risks. It’s difficult to avoid but Jowitt says he would rather see that here then other places around the globe.

“The one advantage of mining these things in the U.S. is we have strict environmental regulations. Mining companies are increasingly aware of the social impact they have and they think of how to bring benefits to local communities rather than leaving a problematic hole in the ground,” Jowitt said.

While Mountain Pass is the only current rare earth mine, Jowitt says that the U.S geological survey is actively cataloging potential sites. The next steps would be to analyze them.

“There’s some potential mineralization in Texas and Nebraska. There’s all sorts of areas. The fact is the U.S. is really under explored,” says Jowitt.

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