5
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS, TRENDS, AND ISSUES
In 2019, the estimated total value of nonfuel mineral
production in the United States was $86.3 billion, an
increase of 3% from the revised total of $84 billion in
2018. The estimated value of metals production
increased slightly to $28.1 billion. Lower production of
some metals was offset by increased values. Byproduct
vanadium was produced in Utah for the first time since
2013. The total value of industrial minerals production
was $58.2 billion, a 3% increase from that of 2018. Of
this total, $27.7 billion was construction aggregates
production (construction sand and gravel and crushed
stone). Crushed stone was the leading nonfuel mineral
commodity in 2019 accounting for 22% of the total value
of U.S. nonfuel mineral production. Increased
construction activity resulted in increased prices and
production of some industrial minerals.
In 2018, as a result of U.S. Department of Commerce
findings of harm to national security under Section 232
of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended (19
U.S.C. 1862), additional import duties for aluminum
articles and steel articles were put into place. Several
Presidential Proclamations were issued in 2019
modifying either the tariff rates or the countries affected.
After the United States, Canada, and Mexico reached an
agreement on trade terms in May, the ad valorem duties
for aluminum and steel imports were removed for
Canada and Mexico. As of December 2019, aluminum
imports from all countries except Argentina, Australia,
Canada, and Mexico remained subject to a 10% ad
valorem tariff, and steel imports from all countries except
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Republic of
Korea, and Mexico remained subject to a 25% ad
valorem tariff.
Under Section 301 (b) of the Trade Act of 1974, as
amended, the Office of the United States Trade
Representative (USTR) determined that acts, policies
and practices of China related to technology transfer,
intellectual property, and innovation were discriminatory
or unreasonable and those actions burdened or
restricted United States commerce (83 FR 14906) in
2018. Several lists of tariff lines (Lists 1, 2, 3) were
compiled, and imports of those materials became
subject to an additional import duty for products from
China. Lists 1 and 2 had duty rates of 25% implemented
in July 2018 and August 2018, respectively. List 3, which
included nonfuel mineral commodities, had a duty rate of
10% imposed in late September 2018. The rate was
scheduled to increase to 25% on January 1, 2019;
however, that action was delayed. From January through
May 2019, trade discussions between the United States
and China were ongoing. In May 2019, because a trade
agreement was not reached, the United States
increased tariffs for List 3 items to 25% (84 FR 20459).
China likewise imposed additional import duties for
certain items originating in the United States. In
December, a phase one trade agreement was reached
between the United States and China, which reduced
some tariff rates and resulted in additional tariffs not
being implemented. At yearend 2019, the United States
had a 25% tariff on approximately $250 billion of imports
from China, including nonfuel mineral commodities, and
a 7.5% tariff on approximately $120 billion of imports
from China. China had additional tariffs ranging from 5%
to 30% on approximately $110 billion of imports from the
United States.
Also under Section 301 (b) of the Trade Act of 1974, as
amended, the USTR published a request for comments
in December (84 FR 67992) on proposed additional ad
valorem duty rates of up to 100% for items from
specified European countries, including several
ferroalloys and other nonfuel mineral commodities. The
critical minerals niobium, palladium, rhenium, and
vanadium were on the list of proposed items.
Executive Order 13817, A Federal Strategy to Ensure
Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals (EO),
was issued on December 20, 2017. Several actions
were required of Federal agencies to address critical
minerals. Pursuant to the EO, the Secretary of the
Interior, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense,
and in consultation with the heads of other relevant
executive departments and agencies, was tasked with
developing and submitting a list of minerals defined as
critical minerals to the Federal Register. The final list of
critical minerals was published in the Federal Register
on May 18, 2018 (83 FR 23295), which included 35
minerals or mineral material groups. These were
aluminum (bauxite), antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium,
bismuth, cesium, chromium, cobalt, fluorspar, gallium,
germanium, graphite (natural), hafnium, helium, indium,
lithium, magnesium, manganese, niobium, platinum-
group metals, potash, the rare-earth-elements group,
rhenium, rubidium, scandium, strontium, tantalum,
tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium, and
zirconium.
The EO also directed the Secretary of Commerce, in
coordination with heads of selected executive branch
agencies and offices, to submit a report to the President
that includes: “a strategy to reduce the Nation’s reliance
on critical minerals; an assessment of progress toward
developing critical minerals recycling and reprocessing
technologies, and technological alternatives to critical
minerals; options for accessing and developing critical
minerals through investment and trade with our allies
and partners; a plan to improve the topographic,
geologic, and geophysical mapping of the United States
and make the resulting data and metadata electronically
accessible, to the extent permitted by law and subject to
appropriate limitations for purposes of privacy and
security, to support private sector mineral exploration of
critical minerals; and recommendations to streamline
permitting and review processes related to developing
leases; enhancing access to critical mineral resources;
and increasing discovery, production, and domestic
refining of critical minerals.” In June 2019, the U.S.
Department of Commerce issued the report,