A working-level U.S. congressional delegation visited Korea Zinc's Onsan Smelter. The United States is pursuing "Project Crucible" with Korea Zinc to build a smelter in Tennessee.
Korea Zinc said on the 26th that a seven-member working-level U.S. congressional delegation—comprising staffers from the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as military officials—visited the Korea Zinc Onsan Smelter on the 18th.
Korea Zinc explained that the visit was arranged so U.S. policymakers could directly assess the technology, production capacity, and competitiveness in the critical minerals supply chain of the Onsan Smelter, a comprehensive nonferrous metal smelter.
Korea Zinc said that during the visit the U.S. working-level delegation emphasized the importance of Project Crucible and the need to expand cooperation between Korea and the United States in the supply chain field.
Project Crucible is a plan to invest about 11 trillion won to build a smelter in Tennessee that will produce 12 types of nonferrous metals, including 11 critical minerals, as well as semiconductor-grade sulfuric acid. The project is designed based on the Onsan Smelter, and Korea Zinc's smelting technology and operating plan will be applied.
According to Korea Zinc, the visiting U.S. working-level congressional delegation plays a key role in the institutional sector of legislation and policy review related to supply chains and economic security. They were said to have shown interest in the Onsan Smelter's critical mineral production facilities during the visit.
The United States is currently focused on reducing reliance on certain countries for critical mineral supply chains and reorganizing those chains around itself and its allies.
The Onsan Smelter is an integrated facility that produces base metals such as zinc, lead, and copper, precious metals such as gold and silver, and minor metals such as antimony, indium, and bismuth. Korea Zinc assessed that the Onsan Smelter is drawing attention as a hub for reorganizing and strengthening the resilience of global supply chains.
The Onsan Smelter also produces critical minerals from secondary raw materials such as smelting byproducts, electronic scrap, waste printed circuit boards (PCB), and end-of-life solar panels.
Korea Zinc said this competitiveness is why the U.S. government is jointly pursuing Project Crucible with Korea Zinc.
Recently, the U.S. international security think tank "Atlantic Council" said in a report that Korea and the United States should expand cooperation to build a supply chain for batteries used in civilian and military sectors, and it identified Korea Zinc as a strategic partner to strengthen the resilience of the U.S. critical minerals supply chain and diversify it.
Korea Zinc said it will continue to pursue Project Crucible with the U.S. federal government and Congress, as well as the Tennessee State Government, and will work for Korea and the United States to jointly address supply chain resilience issues.
Meanwhile, at the end of Apr., Stuart C. McWhorter, Tennessee's lieutenant governor, also visited Korea Zinc's Onsan Smelter and said Project Crucible "will be an important opportunity to enhance economic security by strengthening the Korea-U.S. partnership and fortifying the critical minerals supply chain."