Congressman says Trump's rare earth minerals plans could spur manufacturing boom in Rust Belt

In 2023, China accounted for nearly 70 percent of global production of strategic minerals. Its share has increased after reaching a low at 57.6 percent in 2020. "And here's the reason why it's so important that we mine them, because you're going to almost certainly have your manufacturing close to where you find the natural resource," Tiffany says.

By Nicholas Ballasy

Published: March 9, 2025 10:56pm

Congressman Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., predicted that President Trump's plans on rare earth minerals could spur a manufacturing boom in the Rust Belt, referring to last week's joint session of Congress on Tuesday. At that speech, Trump said “Later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA.”

Trump is reportedly preparing an executive order that would speed up raw mineral production and processing. Tiffany, a member of the Committee on Natural Resources and chairman of its Subcommittee on Federal Lands, said Trump’s executive action will be a game changer for the U.S.

"We have such an incredible endowment here in America of natural resources, including minerals of all types, for example, in the upper Midwest, from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in that arc under Lake Superior all the way over through Wisconsin to Northeastern Minnesota, we have all the minerals we need,” he said on the "Just the News, Not Noise" TV program.

"And here's the reason why it's so important that we mine them, because you're going to almost certainly have your manufacturing close to where you find the natural resource," he added. As an example, Tiffany said, China loves that they're able to "get all these minerals from Australia" since it's a short jump from there to China.

China is the leading producer of rare earth minerals, accounting for 90% of rare earth processing and 70% of the world's supply. In December 2024, China announced it was banning the export of rare earths to the U.S. such as gallium, germanium and antimony. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, gallium, germanium, and antimony are "vital inputs for defense technologies.”

"We need to produce minerals here in America," Tiffany said. "Also that gives us a competitive advantage in doing manufacturing [...] You see it in the Great Lake states when those, they call them Lakers, they run that iron ore over to the steel mills that are in Gary, Indiana and places like that on the Great Lakes."