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On April 16, the US Senate narrowly voted to overturn former President Joe Biden's mining ban in northern Minnesota, agreeing with the House of Representatives and sending the bill to President Trump.
US President Donald Trump on Monday signed H.J.Res. 140 into law, overturning a 2023 decision by the Biden administration that had placed a 20-year ban on mining and geothermal leasing across more than 225,000 acres of national forest land in northeastern Minnesota.
It highlights the Trump administration's intensified push to bolster the US supply of critical minerals. Minnesota, in particular the Duluth region in the north, is known for its vast endowment of copper, nickel and cobalt, which are essential materials in electric vehicles, AI data centers, wind turbines and weaponry.
The move reverses Biden's 20-year block on mining across 91,200 minerals-rich hectares in the Superior National Forest and gives a major boost to Chilean miner Antofagasta's Twin Metals project, as well as other proposed mines in the region bordering Canada.
A future president could not replicate Biden's ban because of a provision in the 1996 Congressional Review Act.
Appalachian lithium cache enough to power 130 million EVs, USGS says
The Appalachian region of the eastern US holds enough lithium to curb America's reliance on imports for centuries, according to new research by the US Geological Survey, underscoring domestic resource potential as demand for critical minerals accelerates.
The area, which covers Maine, New Hampshire and the Carolinas, holds an estimated 2.3 million metric tons of economically recoverable lithium, said a USGS study published Tuesday. That's enough of the battery metal to replace 328 years of US imports at last year's level, and enough to power 130 million electric vehicles or 1.6 million grid-scale batteries, the agency said.
The US imports more than half its consumption of lithium, a key ingredient in batteries that power EVs, computers and phones. Dependence on foreign supply was a factor that contributed to including lithium on last year's USGS critical minerals list.
Global lithium supply remains concentrated, with China dominating the world's supply of processed lithium. The USGS expects global lithium production capacity to double by 2029 on increasing demand.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin is coming out as Republican, per NYT
The reporting follows Brin's ambitious efforts to kill the California wealth tax, elect a Republican to California governor, and move his residency out of California.
He finally expressed his sentiment in a comment to NYT:
"I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don't want California to end up in the same place."
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