The "Finding Opportunities for Resource Exploration Act" aims to enhance international cooperation in mapping critical minerals and rare earth elements to bolster U.S. and allied supply chains and encourage private sector investment.
Christopher Coons
Senator
DE
The "Finding Opportunities for Resource Exploration Act" aims to enhance international cooperation in mapping critical minerals and rare earth elements through memorandums of understanding with partner countries. This collaboration seeks to improve global supply chains, ensure U.S. and allied companies have priority in resource development, and encourage private investment in sustainable resource management. The Act prioritizes projects that process minerals in the U.S. or allied countries and protects mapping data from unauthorized access. It also mandates congressional notification and private sector consultation to facilitate private sector interest in developing critical minerals and rare earth elements.
Finding ORE Act: U.S. Eyes Global Partnerships to Map Critical Minerals, Prioritizes American & Allied Development
Digging In: What the Finding ORE Act Does
This bill, officially the "Finding Opportunities for Resource Exploration Act," greenlights the U.S. Department of the Interior, working through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), to team up with foreign countries. The goal? To map out deposits of critical minerals and rare earth elements – think essential ingredients for everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to defense technology. The plan involves creating formal agreements, called Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), with "partner foreign countries" (nations supplying these minerals) and "allied foreign countries" (those with defense treaties). The core idea is to get a better handle on global supplies and strengthen international supply chains for these vital materials, as defined back in the Energy Act of 2020.
Priority Access & Potential Funding: The Nuts and Bolts
Beyond just mapping, the Act lays out some specific ground rules for these partnerships. A key provision aims to ensure that U.S. or allied companies get the "first chance" to actually develop the mineral resources identified through these cooperative efforts. It also encourages private companies to invest in these projects, potentially sweetened by financial backing from U.S. entities like the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Export-Import Bank. There's a specific nudge towards projects that involve processing these minerals either in the U.S. or in allied countries – a potential move to bring more of the supply chain closer to home. The bill also mandates protecting the mapping data generated from falling into the hands of entities in non-allied nations.
Collaboration and Consultation: Setting Up the Deals
Getting these partnerships off the ground involves a few steps. The Secretary of the Interior needs to give Congress a heads-up 30 days before finalizing any MOU. They also have to work closely with the Secretary of State on picking partner countries and negotiating the agreements. Crucially, the bill requires consulting with the private sector – businesses involved in mining and resource development – to help select partner countries and figure out how these MOUs can best spark interest in developing these resources. This collaborative approach aims to align government efforts with industry capabilities and interests, while cooperative activities under the MOUs could range from analyzing geological data and training local experts to promoting educational exchanges in geoscience, referencing the definition of higher education institutions from the Higher Education Act of 1965.