In May, Jim Lamon, Founder and Chairman of DEPCOM Power, a solar energy company, entered the Republican race for Senate in Arizona. Lamon is competing against seven other candidates for the Republican nomination; the winner will face Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in 2022.
This week, I had the opportunity to speak with Lamon about a variety of issues, including bringing “critical mining, processing, and manufacturing” back “to the United States.”
When I asked Lamon about his desire to pull critical processes from China and elsewhere, as well as what he thinks about a broader divestment from the nation, he offered an example regarding copper mining.
“The critical ores that we need to ensure our economy moves, as well as our national defense, those must be mined and processed in the U.S.,” Lamon said before noting that while we have large copper supplies in the United States, there are numerous bureaucratic impediments standing in the way of mining more. Additionally, much of what is allowed to be mined is sent overseas to process.
We mine 80% of the copper we need, we have bountiful supplies that are untapped at present. Why is that? EPA, Forest Service, they put impediments in the way, and year after year of endless reviews…
It’s not difficult to comply [with] the laws, we do that. It’s the burdensome regulations that come with it [and] the continuous oversight by people, who quite frankly, aren’t skilled to do it, to begin with.
We do it much more responsibly when we use processing here in our own country. For example, that 80% of copper that we mine in the U.S., only 50% is processed here. The other 30% goes all the way to Indonesia and back.
The pollution control standards there are much less intense than they are in the U.S. Makes no sense. Let’s get it back to America; we can do it responsibly. It’s great American jobs, and we’re not going to have the leverage that a big Chinese Navy that’s being built will one day be used to keep those ores from processing, [and] returning to our country.
Lamon added that he believes China has a “hundred-year plan” to become the “dominant global force,” and one way to stop that is for the United States to “do our own mining and processing and manufacturing of our critical infrastructure and needs here in our own country.”
TRANSCRIPT:
Q: You also say that you want to bring critical mining, processing, and manufacturing back to the United States. What does that look like legislation-wise, and also, what are your thoughts on a broader divestment from China for American companies?
LAMON: Sure. With the critical ores that we need to ensure our economy moves, as well as our national defense, those must be mined and processed in the U.S. I’ll just give you a brief example … we’re blessed with bountiful copper supplies in the Western U.S., and particularly in Arizona, Utah, Colorado. We mine 80% of the copper we need, we have bountiful supplies that are untapped at present. Why is that? EPA, Forest Service, they put impediments in the way, and year after year of endless reviews. We know the laws that need to be lived by. I do this in my business, right? We design and build large-scale power plants — originally coal and gas, and today, solar. It’s not difficult to comply the laws, we do that. It’s the burdensome regulations that come with it [and] the continuous oversight by people, who quite frankly, aren’t skilled to do it, to begin with.
We need to mine our ores at, my goal would be 120% of our supply. Why do I say that? Well, our economy is constantly changing.
We’re moving to a more high-tech, maybe even a greener economy, that will include more electric vehicles, almost twice the copper in an EV as it is a typical combustive engine. So I just use copper as one example. Rare earth materials, same thing. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be mining 120% of those ores here and processing them here. We do it much more responsibly when we use processing here in our own country. For example, that 80% of copper that we mine in the U.S., only 50% is processed here.
The other 30% goes all the way to Indonesia and back. The pollution control standards there are much less intense than they are in the U.S. Makes no sense. Let’s get it back to America; we can do it responsibly. It’s great American jobs, and we’re not going to have the leverage that a big Chinese Navy that’s being built will one day be used to keep those ores from processing, [and] returning to our country.
So yes, in a broader aspect, I believe China has a hundred-year plan, which they make public, that they’re [ahead] of it. And they intend to use every aspect that they can to ensure that they’re the dominant global force. One of those critical ways of us not allowing that to happen is to do our own mining and processing and manufacturing of our critical infrastructure and needs here in our own country.
My full interview with Lamon will be released Sunday at The Daily Wire.