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Many observers have been surprised at one item that has appeared on the President’s agenda since the election: strengthening America’s relationship with Greenland. This issue didn’t come up during the election campaign, nor has it been on Washington’s radar in decades. But a closer look at the reasons for this new interest shows that the President’s concern is based on sound strategy.
Greenland is home to 25 of the 34 critical minerals that are absolutely necessary for a modern economy. These are materials the Defense Department deems strategic including antimony, graphite, copper, nickel, zinc, and gold–minerals that our Chinese rivals would love to get their hands on.
It was certainly not a coincidence that the President announced his interest in Greenland right after a November discovery of antimony on Greenland. Antimony is used in starter batteries in every vehicle in America. No antimony means no starter batteries, and no starter batteries means no modern economy.
Unfortunately, America has zero domestic supply of antimony right now. It will take years to get our only mine up and running. Even then it would only meet 40 percent of U.S. antimony needs–needs that include ammunition and night vision goggles for our warfighters. Last year, two-thirds of our antimony supply came from China.
China already controls half of the world’s antimony and has aggressively sought to control the world’s critical minerals, dominating processing and using debt to entrap developing nations and extract their resources. China notoriously exposes child laborers in the Congo to dangerous conditions to extract cobalt and lithium. When it comes to critical minerals, China is absolutely ruthless.
China’s critical mineral strategy is directly linked with its industrial policy, which has been to bankrupt competitors through subsidies and dumping and then to skyrocket prices. There is a very real threat that China could do this to starter batteries as it once attempted to do with steel: dumping cheap, low-quality, subsidized products in our market to bankrupt U.S. companies.
Absent American action, China could simply swoop in and buy up Greenland’s minerals. They are already in our hemisphere. China is Canada’s second-largest mineral importer from Canada (after the U.S.), and is aggressively pursuing Latin America’s lithium, copper, and other minerals. It's also clear why President Trump has offered to continue to aid Ukraine in exchange for its rare earth minerals. The loss of these strategic materials to China would drive up prices for Americans and enable the Chinese Communist Party to hold our economy hostage.
This is not an idle threat but a strategy already in motion. On December 3, China announced a blanket ban on exporting antimony to the United States, cutting us off from our main supply. The price of antimony jumped by 40 percent within 24 hours, driving up the price of starter batteries and the vehicles they power.
In the short term, America will have to buy antimony from overseas suppliers like Tajikistan, Burma, and Bolivia. But the best way to protect ourselves from China’s critical mineral aggression is to get the most out of the antimony that we already have.
For decades now, America has had a closed-loop starter battery recycling system, which preserves more than 99 percent of starter batteries in circulation. The system is so efficient that old starter batteries can be turned into new starter batteries again and again—for centuries to come. As part of this process, antimony and another critical mineral, tin, are preserved and reused to make new starter batteries here. This American manufacturing miracle fights inflation and keeps us independent from China. However, Party planners in Beijing have built significant overcapacity to process batteries, threatening this American miracle. We must act to ensure that the U.S. closed-loop system is sustained and expanded.
As Congress takes a comprehensive look at our energy and tax laws in the coming months, they should be careful not to take any action that would jeopardize our closed-loop system, drive up the cost of starter battery manufacturing or cede control to China. American battery makers–including those represented by the Responsible Battery Coalition, are using existing tax credits to make more advanced starter batteries here and accelerating advancements in sodium-ion batteries and supercapacitors. These investments ensure the starter battery sector is not only independent of China, but independent of antimony altogether.
President Trump’s attention to Greenland may have surprised some commentators, but it doesn’t surprise American manufacturers. It is a refreshing example of nonpartisan, non-ideological common sense action. The President’s grand strategy is clear: a new Trump-Monroe Doctrine for the 21st century—to keep our hemisphere’s critical minerals out of the hands of our adversaries.
Adam Muellerweiss is president of the Responsible Battery Coalition.
