By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

The U.S. Army will develop small-scale refineries to ensure domestic supply of critical minerals for defense and military purposes as the United States and the Western allies look to reduce their dependence on China. 

“We need to come up with a way to ‌make our own (critical minerals) domestically that we can actually monitor and control within our borders,” Mark Mezger, a munitions procurement adviser for the U.S. Army, told Reuters. 

The Army is currently developing a project with the Idaho National Laboratory and gold mining company Perpetua Resources to process antimony.  

In September, the U.S. Army’s Joint Program Executive Office Armaments and Ammunition (JPEO A&A) joined Perpetua Resources Inc. to launch the Stibnite Gold Project in central Idaho. The project seeks to redevelop an abandoned mine site in Stibnite for gold and antimony sulfide, a critical component used in ammunition production. The U.S. previously obtained antimony sulfide from foreign sources until 2021 when that supply ended.

“The Stibnite project currently holds the largest identified reserve of antimony in the U.S. At an estimated 148 million lbs., it is one of the largest antimony reserves outside of foreign control,” said Maj. Gen. John T. Reim, Joint Program Executive Officer Armaments & Ammunition and Picatinny Arsenal Commanding General.  

The project is “in keeping with the Army’s ongoing ‘Ground-to-Round’ assured munitions strategy to locate and engage with domestic sources for critical materials as we modernize and fortify the Arsenal of Democracy,” Reim added. 

The Trump Administration is ensuring funding through buying minority stakes in North American rare earth and lithium companies and projects, while companies in the U.S. and Europe are setting up alliances with miners and refiners to have magnet supply chains outside and independent of China.

The global rare earth supply chain is among the most highly concentrated across all stages of the value chain, analysts at the International Energy Agency (IEA) wrote in a commentary in October.