a copper and nickel mining project in its infancy by revoking its permit. The reason:"the permit did not comply with the water quality standards set by a sovereign downstream tribe, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa."
A lithium mine proposed for Nevada, meanwhile, has been shelved because of massive environmentalist opposition. The activists claimed the mine would harm a rare species of buckwheat and insisted that the species be listed as endangered, which the administration agreed to do. Certainly, partner and ally nations such as Canada and Australia are unlikely to change their geopolitical priorities in a way that would turn them against the U.S., but some of the biggest producers of key transition metals and minerals are a whole other matter. the creation of an OPEC equivalent for transition metals.
Even so, the supply of metals and minerals critical for the transition remains highly uncertain, even in the friendliest of U.S.-friendly jurisdictions. Because of stringent environmental regulations of the sort that the U.S. itself enforces at home. And because opening a new mine takes not only money—which can be made available with IRA support—but also time.