Chair Choi Yoon-beom of Korea Zinc said the critical minerals issue, long discussed from an economic perspective, should be seen as directly tied to national security, and noted that cooperation with other countries needs to be expanded in the mining sector.
According to Korea Zinc and others on the 28th, Choi said in a conversation on the 27th (local time) with the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that if the critical minerals issue relies only on market signals as in the past, some countries' dominance will only strengthen and the supply chain vulnerabilities of the United States and others will inevitably deepen.
Choi said, "The United States does not need to control the entire critical minerals supply chain to counter or offset China's dominance in the sector," adding that other mining countries at the extraction stage—such as Indonesia, Congo and India—may view China's market dominance as a burden, so Washington should extend a hand of cooperation to them.
He added that because the critical minerals sector is likely to continue favoring a strategy that prioritizes output over profitability, the United States should work with mining countries to secure raw materials and bolster industrial competitiveness.
Choi said, "If we cooperate in ways that improve the economic and social conditions of mining countries struggling with falling metal prices and lower smelting fees, and build a minerals supply chain through that cooperation, we will be able to sufficiently enhance competitiveness in the critical minerals industry."
He cited "partnership" as the key to building a critical minerals supply chain and pointed to Korea Zinc's U.S. integrated smelter construction project (Crucible Project) as an example. He also said that by accumulating successful experiences from bilateral cooperation projects like the Crucible Project and leveraging them, an alliance with trustworthy countries should be built over the long term.
The Crucible Project is a venture in which Korea Zinc will build a 650,000-square-meter nonferrous smelter in Clarksville, Tennessee, to produce not only base metals such as zinc, lead and copper but also 11 types of critical minerals starting in 2029. The total investment amounts to $7.432 billion (about 10.95 trillion won). It plans to process about 1.1 million tons of feed per year and produce 540,000 tons of finished products.