The U.S. needs to strengthen its cooperation with Latin American countries to obtain safe supplies of key minerals, a high-ranking State Department official said.
“Latin America has all the minerals key to green technological production. When consulting about the growing ties between Brazil and other countries in the region with China in the development of supplies of minerals and batteries for electric vehicles, this is a perfect example of why we need to be more involved and why we have created the Mineral Safety Association,” the undersecretary of the Department of State, José Fernández, said in a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on how to address economic coercion and increase competitiveness.
“Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru could be very valuable partners in the search for crucial minerals; we have to work harder in this hemisphere,” Fernández added.
The Biden administration has begun to boost the diversification of US sources of important materials and reduce dependence on China.
The second-largest economy in the world refines around 40% of copper, 59% of lithium, and 73% of cobalt worldwide.
In Brazil, metals are extracted, including copper and nickel, which are used to manufacture batteries in other countries. Argentina, on the other hand, is the fastest-growing lithium producer.
