Biden’s battery-metal push does nothing to ease mining permit bottleneck

The US is set to give the mining industry a key tool to boost domestic production of metals behind the energy transition -- but nothing that speeds up efforts to dig ore out of the ground.

President Joe Biden is poised to add battery metals to the list of items covered by the 1950 Defense Production Act that could help mining companies access $750-million to fund production at existing operations, productivity and safety upgrades and feasibility studies, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. However, the changes to the act do nothing to streamline the permitting process.