China controls the critical minerals that “underpin America’s economy, including materials used in missiles, microchips, electric vehicles and data centers,” writes Drew Bond, who asserts that “without reliable access to these minerals, manufacturing will stall and our technological edge will disappear.
“The United States imports almost all these minerals from China,” Mr. Bonds, the co-founder and executive chairman of C3 Solutions, writes in an op-ed for The Washington Times. “To break this monopoly and secure America’s future, we must broaden our search for these essential resources to a frontier few Americans have considered: the deep seabeds.
“Polymetallic, mineral-rich nodules on the ocean floor containing nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese and other rare earth elements are a potentially massive, untapped reserve that can reduce our strategic vulnerability,” he writes, adding that “harvesting from the sea floor is the most environmentally sustainable way to obtain the minerals we need.”
