The automotive giant asked for faster mine permitting, greater transparency in the review process and a boost in federal funding for geological mapping.

A report by Reuters has highlighted that US mining companies, automakers and a bipartisan group of congressional members are recommending that the federal government cuts the time needed to permit a new mine in order to boost domestic production of EV materials.  The requests have been submitted to the Interagency Working Group on Mining Reform, which has been studying ways to change the law which governs hard rock mining on US government land.

The central issue, according to these parties, is that state and federal approval for a mine can take more than a decade and that the lengthy and costly permitting process makes it difficult for US businesses to invest in domestic extraction and processing of critical materials.  Conservationists in the USA, meanwhile, also want mining law reform.  But rather than urging a reduction in permitting times, most advocate for less mining, more recycling as well as focusing better on ways to mitigate mining's effect on host communities. 

The recent passing of the Inflation Reduction Act in the USA implies huge additional future demand for the critical materials that will underpin the energy transition.  Tax credits for clean energy and consumer credits for EVs, wind and solar, if effective, will add further demand for metals such as aluminium, copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, REEs silicon and manganese.

A sustainable supply of these materials at scale is by no means guaranteed, and the potential for raw material bottlenecks causing a barrier to the Act's implementation is considerable.  Importantly, the bill stipulates that a sizable proportion of the materials consumed in future need to be mined, recycled, and refined in the USA or in a free trade partner country.  Thus, to ensure that the Act’s ambitions are met, it will be essential for the US government to create the conditions for the further development of sustainable, resilient critical material supply chains in North America.  Policymakers need to change the mining laws but how and whether they will do so, remains unclear.