BOEM Initiates Process for Potential Mineral Lease Sale Offshore Virginia
To advance President Trump’s national strategy for securing America’s critical mineral supply, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has initiated the process for a potential mineral lease sale in federal waters off the coast of Virginia. This action—only the third of its kind in over three decades—marks a step toward unlocking the vast mineral potential of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf and reinforcing the nation’s economic and strategic independence.BOEM oversees 3.2 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf, an offshore area that exceeds the size of the U.S. landmass.
Australia Offers Alternative Critical Minerals Supply to China
Australia offers a secure alternative supply for critical minerals vital to industry, its trade minister Don Farrell said on Thursday, in the face of rising concerns about Beijing's dominance of the sector.China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of rare earths and related magnets crucial to sectors ranging from automakers to aerospace and defence was widely seen as Beijing using that dominance for leverage in its trade war with the Trump administration.While China is a top global producer of 30 of the 50 minerals considered critical by the U.S.
VIDEO: 'Historic Moment' as Seabed Nodules Collected and Lifted to Production Vessel Using 4 km Riser
The Metals Company (TMC) said Wednesday it had collected an initial batch of seafloor polymetallic nodules, and transported them up a 4km-long riser system to the surface in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean.TMC, the explorer of what it says is the world’s largest estimated undeveloped source of critical battery metals, said the move was a historic one, representing the first integrated system test conducted in the area since the 1970s."Having successfully completed…
