Metal Ore Mining

May 16, 2025 - NIOSH Cuts Threaten Miners' Safety

• Cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, threaten miners’ safety just as the Trump administration is seeking to expand mining in the US, NPR reports. “This is not just an attack on jobs,” said President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Cecil E. Roberts condemning the cuts. “This is an attack on the very foundation of worker safety in the United States of America.” Roberts said the dismantling of the Respiratory Disease Division at NIOSH eliminates the nation’s leading defense against black lung disease and other respiratory illnesses that afflict miners. In March, President Trump signed an executive order to fast track permitting and expand US mining, with cuts at NIOSH following soon after. More mining would mean more miners to protect. However, miners' protections are being stripped away, according to UMWA.
• President Trump has signed an executive order aimed at boosting the deep-sea mining in US and international waters, marking his latest attempt to boost US access to nickel, copper, and other critical minerals used widely across the economy, USA Today reports. The EO, signed in April, prioritizes US leadership in seabed mapping and mineral exploration, to ensure access to critical minerals like manganese, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements, according to a White House Fact Sheet. It affirms the nation’s right to extract critical minerals from the ocean floor, enabling companies to bypass the International Seabed Authority and seek permits directly from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which will review applications and issue exploration licenses and commercial recovery permits to US entities for deep-sea mining in international waters. The EO builds on Trump’s previous attempts to tap international metal and mineral deposits in Greenland and Ukraine.

• The price of antimony – a critical metal used in munitions, solar panels, semiconductors, and other industrial products – is rising following China’s ban on certain rate earth mineral exports to the US, Reuters reports. In December, China banned exports of certain rare earth metals to the US in retaliation for the Biden administration’s imposition of export controls to China, pushing antimony prices to all-time highs, between $39,500-40,000 per metric ton as of Dec. 31. Overall, antimony prices soared by around 250% last year. China controls roughly half of global antimony production, with Tajikistan and Russia controlling some 30%, leaving the US dependent of foreign sources. To reduce US reliance on imports, Idaho-based Perpetua Resources – the only mine source of antimony in the US – and smelter operator United States Antimony Corp. are exploring a partnership to establish an antimony supply chain in Idaho and Montana, Metal Tech News reports.
• The bipartisan Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act of 2024, signed into law by President Biden in December, cuts the red tape to allow state agencies and nonprofits to begin the long-overdue clean up of an estimated 23,000 legacy abandoned actively draining mines in Colorado, and well over 100,000 nationwide, according to the National Mining Association (NMA). Previously, the intricacy of federal environmental law had scared off would-be do-gooders from stepping in to clean up actively draining abandoned hardrock mines because they risked becoming legally and financially liable for the pollution. According to the NMA, the bill’s passage will encourage the involvement of mining companies in the clean up. A version of the law was first introduced in Congress in 1999.