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The United States has Second longest delivery times in the world There is a need to develop new mines for critical minerals that are vital to the energy transition, S&P Global said this week in a new report that also noted a rise in litigation against mining companies. Mining projects, prompting companies to cut their exploration budgets in the United States.
The United States takes an average of 29 years to bring these mines from discovery to production, longer than any other country except Zambia, which takes an average of 34 years, according to the report.
The report showed that the United States receives significantly lower budgets for mining exploration than its advanced economy counterparts, with such investment being 57% higher in Australia and 81% higher in Canada over the past 15 years.
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The long lead times in the United States belie the country’s massive resource base: U.S. copper reserves and resources of 275 million tonnes are comparable to those of Canada and Australia combined and sufficient to meet domestic demand for the foreseeable future, and U.S. lithium reserves and resources of 43 million tonnes are more than double those of Australia, which currently accounts for half of the world’s lithium production.
Only three mines have come into production in the United States since 2002, while an additional 10 non-operating projects have been in development for decades, representing a pre-production value of more than $100 billion in copper, gold, lithium and zinc, Standard & Poor’s said.