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- [00:05]
Noel King
In President Trump's second term. We've seen a lot of news about tariffs.
- [00:10]
Gracelyn Baskerin
Chinese imports into the US now face.
- [00:12]
Ernest Scheider
A 30% tariff down.
- [00:14]
Noel King
About Congress.
- [00:15]
Ernest Scheider
The one big beautiful bill enshrines into.
- [00:17]
Noel King
Law and funds President Trump's promises about Elon Musk and Doge.
- [00:21]
Ernest Scheider
This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.
- [00:26]
Noel King
Those are the loud stories of the Trump administration. There's a quieter story, though, President Trump's obsession with critical minerals.
- [00:35]
Unnamed Expert
We believe it's possible to extract enormous amounts of critical minerals and rare earths, which, you know, we need for technology and high technology in the process.
- [00:44]
Noel King
In South Africa, Ukraine, China, Greenland, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the ocean. What exactly is going on right now? That's coming up on TODAY Explained.
- [01:00]
Ernest Scheider
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- [01:57]
Noel King
Ready for a new adventure?
- [01:58]
Ernest Scheider
Today we're going to learn everything about minerals.
- [02:02]
Noel King
This is TODAY Explained.
- [02:04]
Ernest Scheider
My name is Ernest Scheider. I'm a journalist at Reuters, where I write about critical minerals. I'm also the author of a book called the War Lithium, Copper and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives.
- [02:15]
Noel King
All right, Ernest, we promised the people we'd explain what is going on with the president and his fixation on critical minerals. Go ahead.
- [02:23]
Ernest Scheider
Well, I think there's a realization by President Trump and those in his orbit that the United States produces relatively few of these critical minerals within its own borders and that countries like China and others have large reserves and produce and process a lot of them. And so as our world becomes increasingly electrified, we're going to need a lot more of these critical minerals, not just in the United States, but globally. And so there's definitely a realization that we need to have more of these, not just for things like laptops and cell phones and electric vehicles, but also for key pieces of equipment used by the military. You know, fighter jets, submarines, laser guided missiles, et cetera. They're all made with critical minerals, some of them very niche and specific critical minerals. But the United States produces and processes very few of these today. So that's part of the reason why you're seeing the administration in Washington and especially President Trump, make a big push for new fresh supplies.
- [03:18]
Noel King
All right, so President Trump, as he sometimes does, has become obsessed with something, but it's something, as you're telling us, it's something quite important. What are critical minerals? Exactly?
- [03:28]
Ernest Scheider
So when we think, Noel, about the periodic table of the elements, and stay with me here, you don't. Don't fall asleep.
- [03:33]
Gracelyn Baskerin
Sure.
- [03:35]
Ernest Scheider
There's a whole host of items on the periodic table of the elements. And so copper might be the one that people might know the most about. It's used in wiring, it's used in motors and many other electronics. Lithium is used in lithium, lithium ion batteries, as the name of course implies. But the lithium ion battery really started to take off in the 1990s and, and early 2000s. Energizer E squared lithium, the world's longest lasting double A battery. And digital cameras record for up to 12 hours on one battery with a Sony Stamina Handycam camcorder. For decades before that, it was used in things like greases or in pharmacologics. So its use is definitely mushroomed in recent decades. Nickel is used to make stainless steel, but its use in the lith ion battery has become extremely important in that same time frame as well. Rare earths are a subset of critical minerals.
- [04:29]
Unnamed Expert
We said rare earth, they're very good. Rare earth. As you know, we're looking for rare earth all the time.
- [04:34]
Ernest Scheider
They're a group of 17 minor metals found on that periodic table of the elements. And they're used to make magnets that turn power into motion. So the thing that makes your cell phone vibrate is a magnet made from rare earths. So broadly, when we look at critical minerals, copper has been one of the most important for many, many. But when we look at all these other assortments of these niche areas, like lithium or cobalt or rare earths, they've just exploded in popularity because of this electrified transition that our entire global economy is going through right now.
- [05:10]
Noel King
What are they in that I might not know about, that I might not realize.
- [05:14]
Ernest Scheider
One of the things that I like to talk about is just think about all of the gadgets and gizmos in your house, Noel, that are powered by lithium ion batteries today that weren't even 20 or 30 years ago. So a great example is a leaf blower. Leaf blowers historically have been powered by two stroke engines and that are just really bad for the environment. They emit this noxious plume of pollutants that contribute to climate change. And so many governments across the planet are actually outlawing them or phasing them out. Washington, D.C. for instance, has determined that they should be banned. The answer, many people say, is get a leaf blower powered by a lithium ion battery. And so you're starting to see these sprout up at home improvement stores across the United States and really the world. Here's the question that I have, though. Where do all the critical minerals used to make that electric leaf blower come from? You know, do we know that the copper is ethically sourced? Do we know that the lithium was produced in a sustainable manner that honored ESG and environmental commitments? And what about the other critical minerals in there? And we don't know. You know, as part of my book, I actually went down this rabbit hole of trying to figure out where do all the critical minerals come from these leaf blowers and other household appliances now that are powered by lithium ion batteries? And I couldn't actually find an answer because tracking that supply chain was extremely difficult. So this is not just about electric vehicles. This is about all the devices that we use every single day that are increasingly powered by these lithium ion batteries. They're all built with critical minerals.
- [06:50]
Noel King
And are critical minerals just things, I'm guessing here that you dig up out of the ground?
- [06:55]
Ernest Scheider
Yes. Yeah, exactly. So for many of these critical minerals, they're extracted the way that you would extract, say, gold or silver, sort of. You actually, you have a big caterpillar or other piece of large earth moving equipment that would take the rock out of the ground and then you would process it in a series of chemical steps. That is the case for most of these critical minerals. Some have different methodologies, though, by ways that they are produced. Lithium, for instance, can be produced by basically filtering out lithium from brines or salty waters. And these are often found in places of South America, like in Chile or Bolivia or Argentina. But there's no way around it that broadly this involves mining. And mining is just not popular, depending on who you talk to. Mining is loud and it's intrusive and it can have an effect on the environment. But we have to have mining in order to have this electrified future. So There's a huge tension there.
- [07:50]
Noel King
Yes. And in fact, your book is called the War Below, which. Which nods to some of the tension. What are the sides in that war?
- [07:58]
Ernest Scheider
Yeah. So I. I see sort of two issues or two tension points here. Certainly, there's the geopolitical tension, because we know right now that the United States produces relatively few amounts of these critical minerals. And, and China and its allies have spent the better part of the past 30 or 40 years cornering control of many of these critical mineral markets, and they've been very willing to use that control leverage as an economic weapon. There's also a battle here closer at home, Noel, because, you know, while we do have reserves of many of these critical minerals within our borders, we just generally don't like mining. People don't want a mine in their backyard, or they don't want a mine where they might have gone camping or fishing as a child and have strong memories there, or they just might have concerns about what mining might do to land in the long term. And so there's a big tension point there as well. And then I would add to that that there's also a tension point around where we want to process these materials, because once you take that rock out of the ground, you just can't put it into a battery. You then have to process it into a form that can be used to make a battery or other electronic device. So if people don't want a mine in their backyard, they definitely probably don't want a giant refining complex in their backyard as well. But that is an extremely important part of this supply chain here and has to be part of the conversation.
- [09:19]
Noel King
The Trump administration's interest in critical minerals, which appears to be profound, almost makes it seem as if this is an existential struggle. This is one of the most important things that the American government can and should be thinking about. Do you agree with that?
- [09:36]
Ernest Scheider
Well, what I would say is that whoever controls the production and processing of these critical minerals will control the 21st century economy the way that control of petroleum defined the 20th century economy. I mean, I think it's that stark of an issue here for us to look at. And this is something that not just President Trump is focused on. You know, many folks across the aisle in Washington, D.C. democrats, Republicans, and Independents are focused on this. You know, I think it's. It's the one issue, actually, that unites people politically in Washington, D.C. right now.
- [10:09]
Noel King
Everyone in this room agrees that we must proactively manage the minerals that are crucial for our country's energy future, for.
- [10:16]
Ernest Scheider
Both sides of the aisle and for all Americans. Ensuring a stable supply of mineral resources is essential for our national security and future economic well being. And it also was an area that President Biden, when he was in office, focused on. These minerals power phones and computers, household appliances, electric vehicles and batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and so much more.
- [10:40]
Unnamed Expert
Without these minerals, we simply cannot function. They can't function.
- [10:45]
Ernest Scheider
And I'm not saying that oil or natural gas will be phased out completely. I don't think that's a realistic assumption. But we do know that our economy, not just in the United States, but the economies of other nations across the world, are expanding to include more and more of these critical minerals. And there's going to be a fight for supply on the global stage. And so the United States can either produce more of its own domestically or go out to global markets and try to tap deposits there. And this is something that is very, very, very, very much a focus for folks across the Washington establishment, not just President Trump.
- [11:27]
Noel King
Ernest Scheider, he's a senior correspondent for Reuters. His book is called the War Lithium, Copper and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives. Coming up, the art of the minerals deal. Support for today's show comes from Quince Quince. For Father's Day, Quince says they have tons of pieces that your dad will actually want to wear, such as organic cotton silk polos, European linen beach shorts and comfortable pants that work for everything from weekend hangouts to those nice dinners that dads go to. Quince says everything they sell is priced 50 to 80% less than what you find at similar brands. Quince also says that by working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, they can give you lucky without the crazy markups. Our colleague Claire White, believe it or not, got her dad some presents from Quince and here's what she had to say about what he had to say.
- [12:27]
Gracelyn Baskerin
I picked up a couple shirts for my dad for Father's Day from Quint's. The organic cotton pique polo and the mesh performance training tee, both things that I know will become staples in his wardrobe the way that Quint's has become staples in mine. He's already told me how much he loves them.
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Noel King
For the dad who deserves better than basic, Quince has you covered. Go to Quince.com explained for free shipping on your order and 360 doll. That's Quince.com explained to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com explained.
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- [13:59]
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- [14:03]
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- [14:46]
Noel King
I'm Noel King. Gracelyn Baskerin is a mining economist by training. She now directs the Critical Minerals Security Program at the center for Strategic and International Studies. And she says critical minerals at this moment are at the center of a lot of U.S. foreign policy.
- [15:03]
Gracelyn Baskerin
We are starting to see the rise of minerals diplomacy, which is what happens when we embed minerals into our foreign policy. We are forging alliances, we are making strategic decisions, we are pursuing certain objectives, all driven by a need to enhance our mineral security, which we acknowledge we can't do alone because at the end of the day, the US still has limited geological reserves. So we have less than 1% of the world's cobalt, nickel and graphite. So we have to work with other countries.
- [15:34]
Noel King
Let's talk about the countries that do have what we want. And let's start with China. China is the leading producer of critical Minerals, it has more or less cornered the market on refining them. What are the stakes here for the United States?
- [15:52]
Gracelyn Baskerin
So China has built this advantage in minerals through about 40 years of concerted effort by linking up their foreign policy. So when you look at how they view things like Belt and Road initiative, they have spent their money and made their decisions to secure minerals from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Australia, and then they bring it back home for processing. So when we look at some of our key minerals like rare earths, graphite, cobalt, lithium, nickel, like they process between 40 and 90% of the world's supply. What this means for the United States is that China can now weaponize these minerals.
- [16:27]
Ernest Scheider
China has banned the export of some materials essential to the manufacturing of electronics and some military equipment to the U.S. it comes in response to Washington's chip sanctions on Beijing.
- [16:36]
Noel King
Rare earth minerals are a sort of ace up China's sleeve in the escalating trade battle.
- [16:41]
Ernest Scheider
They represent a relatively small proportion of.
- [16:43]
Noel King
The country's economic exports, but they are crucial for the supply chains of other nations.
- [16:48]
Gracelyn Baskerin
And what this means, because the US doesn't necessarily have alternate supply, is that we now face supply chain vulnerabilities and potentially undermine our ability to protect ourselves in the instance of war.
- [17:05]
Noel King
How do you hear President Trump talking about this?
- [17:09]
Gracelyn Baskerin
We've seen President Trump talk a lot about critical minerals. So we've seen executive orders on domestic production and processing, international cooperation. We've heard the President talk about it in the context of Ukraine.
- [17:21]
Unnamed Expert
And one of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine, which they have tremendous value in rare earth, and we appreciate that.
- [17:32]
Gracelyn Baskerin
Democratic Republic of Congo, Many, many people.
- [17:35]
Unnamed Expert
Come from the Congo. I don't know what that is, but they came from the Congo.
- [17:39]
Gracelyn Baskerin
Saudi Arabia, we are rocking.
- [17:41]
Unnamed Expert
The United States is the hottest country, with the exception of your country, I have to say.
- [17:45]
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- [17:46]
Unnamed Expert
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- [17:54]
Gracelyn Baskerin
We've seen him talk about mining under the sea. This administration is really thinking about all of the above. Home, abroad, production, processing on land, underwater, but really going at it with all the tools in the toolkit.
- [18:09]
Noel King
All right, let's run through that list of countries that you just gave us. Ukraine. How do we hear President Trump trying to hone in on Ukraine when it comes to critical minerals?
- [18:20]
Gracelyn Baskerin
So President Trump has pushed for the reconstruction deal that we signed with Ukraine, which essentially creates a fund that in the long term is capitalized by future mineral oil and gas revenue in Ukraine as well as co capitalized by the United States.
- [18:37]
Unnamed Expert
I said, well, we want something for our efforts beyond what you would think would be acceptable. And we said, rare earth, they're very good.
- [18:48]
Gracelyn Baskerin
Now, Ukraine is a complicated place, so. And here's why. Some minerals are a little bit more, you know, what we might call shovel ready, right? Something like lithium. But even then you have complexity because two of the four lithium reserves in Ukraine are actually on Russian occupied land. We actually don't have a good understanding of what is economically viable.
- [19:09]
Noel King
You also mentioned drc, the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is an interesting one because the US does not generally spend a lot of time thinking about that nation. But not long ago we saw the President of DRC on Fox News basically saying to President Trump, we want to.
- [19:28]
Ernest Scheider
Extract these minerals, but also process them as this would create a lot of jobs. And we want a partnership that will provide lasting peace and stability for our countries, which we need.
- [19:43]
Gracelyn Baskerin
So DRC has become a hot area in terms of mobilizing US Government efforts. So what's happened is there has been a conflict, a long running conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- [19:57]
Ernest Scheider
The Congolese government has refuted M23's claims of an ongoing genocide against Tutsis in the DRC. They say it's a pretext for M23's backers, Rwanda, to invade Congo by proxy and take control of its vast mineral resources. This battle, which has been raging for close to 30 years, is always about the control of Congo's mineral wealth.
- [20:20]
Noel King
Congolese are paying the price.
- [20:22]
Gracelyn Baskerin
Now what President of Congo, the DRC came to President Trump and said is like, we need military support and in exchange we will give you access to minerals. So essentially a mineral for military support deal.
- [20:34]
Ernest Scheider
We really have a lot to give and all we ask is really for an opportunity to live in peace.
- [20:41]
Gracelyn Baskerin
What we have seen already happen is that through the Trump administration, they have negotiated essentially a principles framework for peace that gives us access to minerals in both Rwanda and the drc, a separate deal, and there will be a third deal that is a peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda.
- [20:58]
Unnamed Expert
We've made a lot of progress with Rwanda and Congo fighting a very violent war.
- [21:04]
Gracelyn Baskerin
By the way, this is a game changer because DRC has a very, very developed mining sector. So 70% of the world's cobalt comes out of the Congo. They have fantastic lithium and nickel reserves. So it's a place where we see that we could actually get minerals for American offtake quite quickly, which makes it Quite an interesting place for the administration to be targeting Africa.
- [21:34]
Noel King
Okay. And then finally, although this is happening in, in many more places, but Greenland. President Trump has talked about annexing Greenland.
- [21:43]
Unnamed Expert
Greenland is a wonderful place.
- [21:45]
Noel King
We need it for international security, getting control of Greenland.
- [21:49]
Unnamed Expert
The people of Greenland would love to become a state of the United States of America.
- [21:55]
Noel King
And initially when he first took office, I think everyone was really confused. And then it almost immediately emerged again, this is about critical minerals.
- [22:05]
Gracelyn Baskerin
Greenland is a strategic area for two reasons. One is from a national security position, it's geographically well positioned. The second is a critical mineral story. But we have to acknowledge, you know, there's a lot of minerals in Greenland. However, it's not all easily or cost effectively mined. And cost competitiveness is a critical determining factor in whether a mining company is obviously going to go extract and it. So it's a long term look. And obviously Greenland and Denmark have said they are interested, right, in private exploration and you know, potentially sale of private land. However, they're not looking to be annexed. There are absolutely more diplomatic ways to pursue mining interests in Greenland. And remember, we have to remember that the, it's not just about the US And Greenland here. It's also about our European allies. We are not going to out compete China alone. We are going to need our European allies, we're going to need allies in emerging markets, we're going to need Canada. So this is, we're going to have to find a more diplomatic approach to pursuing our mineral security goals with Greenland.
- [23:10]
Noel King
Then there are the parts of the world that are not nations. President Trump wants to issue licenses for deep sea mining.
- [23:17]
Gracelyn Baskerin
President Trump signing an executive order to fast track deep sea mining off the US Coast. China, however, is warning that this could break international law.
- [23:27]
Ernest Scheider
Now major countries including France, Germany and Chile are calling for a pause on all deep sea mining operations in these common areas where mining exploration has already prompted protests. However, nations including Norway, China and South Korea are in favor of pushing ahead.
- [23:46]
Noel King
Does anybody really own the ocean?
- [23:48]
Gracelyn Baskerin
You know, this is a great question and it's probably going to be one of those interesting things that we will watch play out in the next few years because there's a lot of mineral potential underwater, but there's a lot of challenges that we have. So one is licensing, right? We have now we have our licensing system and the International Seabed Authority as their own licensing system. What happens when there's a dispute between these two frameworks? We're not really sure, number one. Number two, there's maritime security implications that we're not Thinking about we're going to have Chinese ships sitting between Mexico and Hawaii under the guise of deep sea mining without a clear way of how to monitor and manage that in an era where geopolitical tension is quite rife. And then the third thing which we obviously hear about the most probably is the environmental implications, because we actually don't know. We don't. It's not that we know it's good or we know it's bad.
- [24:42]
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- [24:42]
Gracelyn Baskerin
We haven't really done it at commercial scale. So there's still a lot of questions about how to manage that.
- [24:48]
Noel King
Critical. Minerals are in fact critical. That's become clear throughout the course of this episode. They're critical for national security, they're critical for the economy, they're critical for our climate future. President Trump does seem to be taking this much more seriously, at least publicly, than his predecessors. Is that fair to say? Has he, has he seized on something here that maybe the American public was missing?
- [25:11]
Gracelyn Baskerin
So I want to actually go back to Trump's first administration. It was really 2017 where President Trump passed the first executive order mandating that we take a better look at our supply chains, understand our vulnerabilities and identify what we need to do. So this was started under Trump's first administration. Then we went to Biden and President Biden actually built on the efforts of President Trump. And the big thing that President Biden did was obviously the Inflation Reduction act, which created a demand signal. It encouraged you to buy the ev. And by encouraging you to buy the ev, I encouraged large scale mineral and investments because we need far more minerals for EVs in any other industry. And then now we go to President Trump. And while certain things like the Inflation Reduction act are clearly incongruent with the current administration, we see a further acceleration. But all to say that minerals are the most bipartisan issue in Washington D.C. and we generally, with some changes, have seen administrations build on what the previous has done.
- [26:18]
Noel King
Gracelyn Baskerin directs the Critical Mineral Security Program at the center for Strategic and International Studies. Next week we're going to ask what does it take to find critical minerals here in the United States? And could we possibly innovate our way out of a tricky situation? Avishai Artsy produced today's show. It was produced in partnership with Vox Future Perfect team. Jolie Myers is our editor. Andrea Christensdotter and Patrick Boyd engineered and Laura Bullard checked the facts. I'm Noel King. It's today explained.
- [27:11]
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Effects of Botox Cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Don't receive Botox cosmetic if you have a skin infection. Side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow and eyelid drooping and eyelid swelling. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms and dizziness. Tell your doctor about medical history, muscle or nerve conditions including ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, Myasthenia gravis or Lambert Eden syndrome and medications including Botulinum tacos toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. For full safety information, visit botoxcosmetic.com or call 877-351-0300.
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