Hi everyone. This is Tony Nash with
Complete Intelligence. Thanks for joining
us for another QuickHit. These are short
talks we have with industry experts to
really hear their thoughts on global
supply chains and markets and other
issues. Today, we're joined by Jerry
Mullins from the National Mining
Association. Gerry, thanks for joining us
and can you just give us a brief
overview of what the Association does
and what you do? Sure, Tony. Thanks for
having me. The National Mining
Association really is the voice of
mining in Washington DC with the
administration, with the Congress, and
with the different agencies. We like to
think that we are on the tip of the
spear when it comes to trying to grow
domestic mining in the United States and
really drive home what the value of that
product is. Great, thanks. Sounds really
fascinating and from your
perspective, looking at what happened in
mining during COVID and post COVID, there are a couple of questions I have. One is
around continuity of operations.
What did mining firm see around
continuity of operations and the risks
there. But also what did mining clients
find with supply chain continuity? That's
a real question and that's something we
saw a lot of issues around as countries
like Peru and others just completely
shut down.
Well I think, fortunately domestic mining
in United States was deemed an essential
industry. And so it was allowed
to continue to operate. And I think
that's really important to
recognize as an industry that
they had the ability to absorb all the
different new environments that a
pandemic brought on and was able to
successfully operate, can continue to
produce the raw materials that were
needed for multiple industries across
the globe. As far as the effects
of other countries and perhaps how they
were affected, I think when you
think about the global economies that
generally slowed down, I think a
lot of folks hit a pause and had to kind
of recalibrate exactly what they were
able to do and the best way to do it. So I think all
that kind of balanced through. But I
thought that domestic mining in the  United States
played a real critical role in
leadership of showing
the nation how to continue to work
forward safely and effectively. Great.
Okay. Now with the supply chain
disruptions and some of the geopolitical
issues, there is a real sense in the US
that there may be some supply chain
security issues around metals and
minerals. So can you help us with that?
What is the Association doing and what's
happening with you as manufacturers
around supply chain security with
the mining product? Well, that's an
interesting point you bring up about the
security issue because just last month
the National Mining Association
conducted a poll and 64% of the
respondents said they were concerned
about the supply chain dynamics and how
reliant the US was on international
supplies of different critical minerals.
So I think you've seen a real zest of
excitement and certainly interest in
focusing on the ability for US producers
to fill that gap and make sure that
those critical minerals that are needed
can be produced in the United States. And
what that entails is sort of addressing
some of the permitting challenges that
domestic mining faces and finding ways
to more effectively allow for US mining
to meet a lot of demand that exists.
Interesting. Okay, so when you talk about
things like permitting and we talk about
supply chain risk, one of the big kind of
things that flag up is rare earths. Can we talk a little bit about rare
earths and understand for, say, the US
electronic sector and Department of
Defense and other considerations? What are some of the things that
you're thinking about and your
observations about rare earths in the US
and the exposure to rare earths from
other places? Well certainly the Department of
Defense relies on 750,000 tons of
minerals each year and that's for
everything from armor for the individual
soldier to armor on a tank to different
requirements for jet engines to
telecommunications. When you think
about everything from palladium
to copper to gold the silver,
some rare some not as rare. But those
necessities are real and I think
that the opportunity for there being to
be tremendous growth in the rare earth
field in the country is really opening
up and that's something that you
know international investors as well as
domestic investors are starting to
recognize. Great. And Jerry I guess one
of the other things we hear quite a lot
about is the green economy. Electric
vehicles, battery technology, you know,
these sorts of things. We hear a lot
about those technologies
accelerating in other locations and
maybe the US has to catch up or you know
there are minerals from other places
that the US may or may not produce.
How do you see US miners contributing to
the green economy and battery technology
and electric vehicles and that whole
section of the economy? Well, you know, I
think when you talk about battery
technology and when you talk about
the
electrification of the auto fleet, what
you're talking about is copper. And
you're talking about mass needs of
copper, mass needs of gold, mass needs
silver, and be able to satisfy the
requirements. If you look at the wind
technology and the coking steel
that's going to be required, the coking
coal for making steel that’s gonna be required
to achieve the goals that have been put
out there, the American miner is
absolutely part of of that future. Great.
Perfect. Jerry, thanks so much for taking your
time today. I really appreciate this and
I look forward to speaking again as we see all of the supply chain
issues with COVID and post COVID and
the kind of renormalized and play
through, it'll be really interesting to
reconnect and hear some of your
thoughts at that point.
Thank you, Tony. I look forward to it.
