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The U.S. has the world’s second longest lead times for developing new mines for critical minerals that are vital to the energy transition, S&P Global said this week in a new report that also noted a high rate of litigation against mining projects, which has caused companies to curb their U.S. exploration budgets.
The U.S. takes an average of 29 years for such mines to go from discovery to production, longer than any other country except Zambia, which takes an average of 34 years, according to the report.
The U.S. receives much less in mining exploration budgets relative to its advanced economy peers, the report showed, as such investment has been 57% higher in Australia and 81% higher in Canada over the past 15 years.
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The long U.S. lead times stand in contrast to the country’s sizable resource base: The 275M-ton U.S. copper reserves and resources is comparable to those of Canada and Australia combined and sufficient to satisfy domestic demand for the foreseeable future, and the U.S. lithium endowment of 43M tons in reserves and resources is more than double Australia, which currently accounts for half of the world’s lithium production.
S&P said only three mines have come into production in the U.S. since 2002, while 10 additional non-operating projects have remained in development for decades, whose pre-production value represents more than $100B worth of copper, gold, lithium and zinc.
