Sinema Stresses Importance of Mining During UA Visit

At a recent University of Arizona roundtable on securing the defense supply chain, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema spoke about the importance of the mining and mineral resource sector in paving the way to a more sustainable future.

“As we seek to move to energy independence and a clean energy future, we have to be cognizant of the fact that we need a lot of minerals: rare, critical minerals, copper and others, in order to get us to that clean future,” said Sinema. “We’re working together to figure out how to increase Arizona’s ability to get these minerals out of the earth, to process them in a cleaner way than you see in other countries, and to make sure we have them on hand.”

Low-carbon and renewable energy technologies such as electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels all rely on mined minerals such as copper, vanadium, zinc and nickel. Due in part to the increased popularity of these technologies, the World Bank estimates demand for copper consumption could grow 200% by 2050. Representatives from academia, industry and the nonprofit world who have come together to develop sustainable solutions to supply chain problems updated Sinema on their progress.

“We do think that Arizona is uniquely positioned to help solve the supply chain crisis,” she said.