Scandium and US Defense

Interesting rticle by Robert Gottliebsen posted this morning on the Australian website regarding the US securing supply of defence-critical minerals etc. Some extracts:

"The United States is heavily reliant on imports of certain mineral commodities that are vital to the nation’s security and economic prosperity...
This dependency of the United States on foreign sources creates a strategic vulnerability for both its economy and military to adverse foreign government action, natural disaster, and other events that can disrupt supply of these key minerals."

The list that follows this includes Scandium.

Trump: “It shall be the policy of the Federal Government to reduce the Nation’s vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals, which constitutes a strategic vulnerability for the security and prosperity of the United States. The United States will further this policy for the benefit of the American people and in a safe and environmentally responsible manner, by:
(a) Identifying new sources of critical minerals;
(b) Increasing activity at all levels of the supply chain, including exploration, mining, concentration, and separation, alloying, recycling, and reprocessing critical minerals;
(c) Ensuring that our miners and producers have electronic access to the most advanced topographic, geologic, and geophysical data within US territory to the extent permitted by law and subject to appropriate limitations for purposes of privacy and security, including appropriate limitations to protect critical infrastructure data such as those related to national security areas; and
(d) Streamlining leasing and permitting processes to expedite exploration, production, processing, reprocessing, recycling, and domestic refining of critical minerals.”


Must be good news in this somewhere.