Bicameral legislation recently led by U.S. Reps. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and U.S. Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) would lead to better development of mineral sources, an industry responsible for more than 13,000 jobs and $11 billion in annual economic output in Nevada alone.
The bill, H.R. 520, would require the secretary of the interior and the secretary of agriculture to develop more efficient domestic mineral sources and mineral materials key to the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing and national security.
“Critical and strategic minerals are essential to the technologies that make our daily lives and economy work,” Amodei said. “Unfortunately, when it comes to mining strategic and critical minerals in America, duplicative regulations, bureaucratic inefficiency and lack of coordination between federal agencies unnecessarily threaten our economy and jeopardize our national security.”
In Nevada, permitting delays are viewed as having prevented good-paying jobs and revenue from flowing into local communities.
“Our bill would simply bring transparency to the permitting process without changing any environmental regulations, protections or opportunity for public input,” Amodei said.
Nevada possesses some of the richest hard rock mineral reserves in the world.
“Unfortunately, these natural resources are not being developed as efficiently as they should be, increasing our nation’s dependence on foreign sources of minerals,” he said. “This legislation improves the burdensome permitting process, increasing American mineral security while creating blue-collar mining and manufacturing jobs.”
In applauding the legislation, National Mining Association President and CEO Hal Quinn noted the slow mine permitting process can take seven to 10 years. As a result, the United States’ dependence on foreign minerals has doubled in the last 20 years.
“Today, less than half of the mineral needs of U.S. manufacturing are met from domestically mined minerals, a trend that will only worsen unless we reform the permitting process responsible for it,” Quinn said.
The legislation has passed the House five times over the past three Congresses.