Supply Chain Transparency

Understanding how the future energy system will impact the global supply chain and associated effects on markets, communities and the environment

Understanding how the future energy system will impact the global supply chain and associated effects on markets, communities and the environment

The global supply chain continues to grow at an incredible rate, but within that growth, a lack of transparency undermines many industries and consumers as they struggle to understand the effects of the supply chain on the markets, communities and the environment.

Payne Supply Chain Transparency works with the Critical Materials Institute, the U.S. government, and policy other stakeholders to better understand the challenges and opportunities related to growing critical mineral demand.

Low-carbon scenarios often have—implicitly or explicitly—high and diverse material needs, depending on what assumptions are made about the nature of future energy systems. As certain technologies become more prominent, it becomes easier to identify what materials will be needed in the near term.

It is important to acknowledge the inherent tensions that exist between building a sustainable future and not managing or understanding the sources and materials with which it is built.

For more information about the Supply Chain Transparency Initiative at the Payne Institute for Public Policy, please contact our Deputy Director, Gregory Clough, at gclough@mines.edu.

NEWS

Department of Defense directly invests in U.S.-based rare earth mining company 7/16/2025

Department of Defense directly invests in U.S.-based rare earth mining company

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian is featured on this podcast discussing how the U.S. government is getting into the mining business. Last week the Pentagon announced a $400 million investment into MP Materials. It is a U.S.-based company that extracts and processes rare earth elements. That includes a group of 17 metals used in technology from cars to airplanes to your cell phone.  July 16, 2025.

Minerals, Magnets, and Military Capability: China’s Rare Earth Weaponization Should Be a Wake-Up Call 7/10/2025

Minerals, Magnets, and Military Capability: China’s Rare Earth Weaponization Should Be a Wake-Up Call

Payne Institute Communications Associate Macdonald Amoah, Director Morgan Bazilian and Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how when China imposed export controls on seven of the seventeen rare earth elements in April 2025, it wasn’t just a trade policy tweak—it was a shot across the bow of the US defense industrial base.  American reliance on foreign minerals and rare earths exposes critical vulnerabilities.  July 10, 2025.

Trump floats a 50% tariff on copper, risking price increases for wide range of goods 7/9/2025

Trump floats a 50% tariff on copper, risking price increases for wide range of goods

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributes to this article about how the Trump administration will soon impose a 50% tariff on all copper imported to the United States, adding another key manufacturing material to a growing list of items being targeted in trade wars and massive taxes on foreign products in a push to bring more manufacturing and production back to within the United States’ borders.  July 9, 2025.

Bridging the Energy Access Divide: A Policy Gap Analysis of 12 African National Energy Compacts Under Mission 300 7/9/2025

Bridging the Energy Access Divide: A Policy Gap Analysis of 12 African National Energy Compacts Under Mission 300

Payne Institute Communications Associate Macdonald Amoah writes about how Africa stands at a pivotal juncture in its energy trajectory, where bold aspirations for universal electrification by 2030 confront entrenched structural and institutional barriers.  In response to this pressing challenge, twelve African governments have aligned themselves with the World Bank’s Mission 300 Energy Compacts, committing to universal access through a suite of reform-oriented and infrastructure-driven strategies.  July 9, 2025.

The Importance of Military Steel Production in Large-Scale Conflicts 7/7/2025

The Importance of Military Steel Production in Large-Scale Conflicts

Gregory Wischer and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about the importance a consistent steel supply chain for US national defense.  A hard, strong alloy of iron, carbon, and other elements, it is used in platforms like attack submarines, long-range bombers, mobile missile launchers, as well as munitions like torpedoes, standoff missiles, and long-range missiles and rockets.  July 7, 2025.

U.S. industry practices and attitudes towards reprocessing mine tailings for metal recovery 6/27/2025

U.S. industry practices and attitudes towards reprocessing mine tailings for metal recovery

Payne Institute Research Associate Aaron Malone, Faculty Fellows Elizabeth Holley, Priscilla Nelson, and Erik Spiller, and Lukas Fahle and Nina Zaronikola write about how recovery of metals from mine tailings has the potential to reduce environmental liabilities and contribute to circular economy, but implementation is limited. This study uses three methods to examine the state of practice and identify knowledge gaps around tailings reprocessing.  June 27, 2025.  

Lithium production in the United States: Socio-technical review of sites, environmental impacts, and social acceptance 6/27/2025

Lithium production in the United States: Socio-technical review of sites, environmental impacts, and social acceptance

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Elizabeth Holley, Raphael Deberdt, and Nicole Smith, and Alannah C. Brett, and Lukas Fahle write about how the low-carbon transition has motivated a global exploration and development surge for lithium (Li).  Currently, the US has only one Li mine and commercial refinery, and one Li-byproduct producer in 2024.  June 27, 2025.

Payne Institute Critical Minerals Special Report – June 2025 6/24/2025

Payne Institute Critical Minerals Special Report

The Payne Institute for Public Policy has published a Critical Minerals Special Report to coincide with our first London Critical Minerals Symposium held on June 23, 2025.  Our insightful sessions hosted representatives from government, the mining industry, academia, finance, advocacy and philanthropy to consider optimizing the opportunities for socioeconomic development in mineral resource-rich countries.  The attached compendium features work from just a few of our panelists.  June 24, 2025.  

What the Old Lead Belt can teach Missouri about critical mineral mining 6/20/2025

What the Old Lead Belt can teach Missouri about critical mineral mining

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Nicole Smith contributed to this article about how the Old Lead Belt’s long history with mining is set to open a new chapter, as it is poised to be a major player in another mining rush. This time, it will be for critical minerals; the components necessary for making nearly everything in the modern day, such as computers, electric vehicle batteries, other renewable energy materials and national defense systems.  June 20, 2025.

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