June 5, 2021 - 

- The National Mining Association has been talking to U.S. Energy Department officials about financing the new development of a domestic mineral supply chain including processing facilities.

- U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm met with the board of the association and is "incredibly supportive" on the issue of critical minerals supplies.

- The association also reached out to the Biden administration on maintaining changes to environmental permitting regulations made under former President Donald Trump.

National Mining Association President and CEO Rich Nolan. Source: National Mining Association

U.S. miners are eagerly anticipating the potential passage of a metals-intensive infrastructure package with financing for new clean-energy development and electric vehicle deployment. S&P Global Market Intelligence spoke with National Mining Association President and CEO Rich Nolan about the relationship between the Biden administration and the sector ahead of what could be complicated legislative discussions on Capitol Hill about such a bill. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

S&P Global Market Intelligence: Can you provide more detail on how the U.S. mining industry could be the backbone for a green energy transition, as you have said?

Nolan: It's clear to us the president's agenda to accomplish what he wants, whether it's infrastructure or some of the executive orders reshoring industries to the United States and the critical supply chains that support them, it's rather obvious to us and most folks that minerals and metals that go into those components are essential. We believe that "Made in America" must include mined in America. All of those essential pieces of the president's vision — wind turbines, semiconductors, EVs — can be produced with American minerals. It's a real bipartisan opportunity to bring these industries back home.

What specific proposals from the Biden administration does the mining sector support?

Infrastructure by its nature is minerals-intensive and metals-intensive. Their package includes $174 billion for electric vehicles and the supply chains to support them. Certainly, Congress will have its say in how that moves in the process, but that's a huge market signal to those that want to invest in mining and the United States. There's also the "Made in America" and supply chain executive orders.

It's an exciting time. We believe it has real potential to drive significant investments. Whether it is Tesla or General Motors, they're talking about investing in the mining space because there could be a real chokepoint. We're more than a willing partner to make this all happen.

What policy actions are you calling on the administration to take regarding mining and supply chain logistics?

We've had several rounds of conversations with the U.S. Department of Energy related to the types of grants they're looking at, especially in the area of processing. From executive policies, DOE or the U.S. Department of Defense, the big supply chain concern we have is the limited amount of domestic processing of critical materials. A lot of our commodities must be exported to places like China in order to be used in the United States. That needs to be changed.

I don't think it is any different than any other manufacturing process. The two chokepoints are investment and capital flows. There are signals coming out of this administration that there will be resources available to improve that. We also need improved permitting for mines and processing. The most effective and impactful way to attract capital is to signal to the markets that you can actually build this stuff.

Permitting is an interesting discussion. You've seen some acknowledgment of this in the executive orders; there is a real concern coming forward that if you're going to stand up additional wind and additional solar, if you're going to put power lines from rural America to urban centers, if you're going to do mine expansions — all the things the administration, and the globe frankly, wants to achieve — all of that is going to have to be permitted somehow. You hear it from every sector now that if you can't get this stuff built, if you can't fix the permitting process in the United States, you're not going to get there.

What evidence do you have that the administration is receptive to these requests?

Secretary Granholm has met with our board. And I don't know if you read any of her quotes over the last couple weeks, but when it comes to critical materials, she's incredibly supportive. We think we have someone that really understands the needs of our industry and is pushing for solutions.

What are your red lines in these policy discussions?

It's a little bit early. Congress is going to have to move through and digest all of this. If you look at permitting, there is going to be a look at [the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA]. These were regulations that hadn't been revised for 50 years. There are certain components of that NEPA reform package that hopefully all stakeholders agree will need to be maintained.

We've started the outreach on maintaining this reform. But this infrastructure proposal is a massive undertaking. The package is large. And as we said, we remain optimistic as we engage through this process.