The US fell meaningfully behind in mineral production, and over 90% of the critical minerals we use are now refined in China, creating a dangerous over-reliance

0:3350 years ago, 60 years ago, we made a lot of these metals in the US. We were one of the largest producers of lithium. We were one of the largest producers [music] of copper. And then 30 years ago, maybe a little bit longer, there was this meaningful shift away from making these metals ourselves. We need to mine more copper in the next 15 years [music] than we have in all of human

0:53history since the Bronze Age. There's a lot of worry about that, but there's no clear reaction by the western [music] mining companies in particular to actually go do it. >> We didn't just lose the capability, we actually fell meaningfully behind. [music] >> Over 90% of the critical minerals we use are refined in China today, which is kind of wild to imagine [music] given that that was a very fast

1:13transition just over the last several decades. Having an over reliance on any [music] single geographic player reduces our ability to have self-determination [music] and control of our own destiny. >> Obviously, there are many things that matter in [music] national security. Some of them are intangible, but these are very physical. And if you don't have the literal units you need to make something, you physically can't make it.

1:34And you know, we've seen [music] an increasingly developed coast world, hard power does matter a lot. And so, if you can't get what you need [music] to build things, you can't build them in a very obvious sense. My name is Turner Caldwell. I'm the CEO of Mariana Minerals. [music] From San Francisco originally, went to Stanford. Mechanical engineering background and then spent about a decade at Tesla. I