President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Geological Survey wants to unlock more public land, federal funding and faster permitting for a larger number of minerals — including uranium, copper and potash.
Ned Mamula, currently the chief geologist at the Washington-based project financing company GreenMet, said that, if confirmed, he plans to add the trio of minerals to the government’s list of critical minerals.
“I would ask the secretary of Interior to allow me, or whoever is the director of the [USGS], the latitude to make these decisions with appropriate public comment,” Mamula said during an interview Wednesday.
The fate of those minerals has been a hotly contested issue on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers hailing from mineral-heavy states have argued they shouldn’t have been left off the USGS list. The agency under the Energy Act of 2020 designated materials deemed important for national security and the economy, therefore making them open to federal funding and streamlined permitting.
