U.S. politics currently allow for vanishingly few areas of bipartisan consensus. But one thing government officials of all kinds tend to agree on is the importance of mining. In particular, they seek “transition minerals,” which are vital to the shift away from fossil fuels. These include lithium, cobalt, copper, and nickel (often called critical minerals, essential for rechargeable batteries), as well as rare-earth minerals such as yttrium, scandium, and lanthanides (integral components of green infrastructure). Freedom from dirty energy, it would appear, requires doubling down on the decidedly nonrenewable practice of mineral extraction.

The Biden administration devoted billions of dollars to building a domestic supply chain for critical minerals and called for half of all new cars to b

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