China is getting ready to play the ultimate power move by restricting exports of a critical mineral needed for weapons production, all while an American company that could reduce U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers is stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare.

On August 15, China announced it would be tightening the screws on exports of antimony—a mineral that’s crucial for making everything from munitions to night vision goggles. The CSIS, also known as the Center for Strategic and International Studies, insists this mineral is crucial for national security.  Meanwhile, Perpetua Resources, a U.S. mining company that could reduce America’s dependence on China for antimony, has been bogged down in a swamp of regulations for years trying to get a mine up and running in Idaho.

It’s not like opening a mine in the U.S. is easy. It can take years—sometimes decades—to navigate the endless permitting process. One major hurdle is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which has the noble goal of protecting the environment but seems to be more efficient at protecting America from progress. Perpetua Resources has been stuck in NEPA’s web for eight long years, and they’re still not out of the woods.

Perpetua Resources isn’t just sitting on a gold mine—literally—they’re also sitting on the largest known deposit of antimony in the U.S. But apparently, extracting this mineral is a lower priority than jumping through the countless hoops set up by federal regulators.

Even Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment, can’t help but point out the absurdity. Sure, the mine has environmental impacts that need addressing, but let’s not kid ourselves—production in the U.S. is far cleaner than in China, where environmental concerns are little more than an afterthought. Plus, depending on China for crucial raw materials while tensions are high feels less like a strategy and more like a bad joke.

“The United States has the highest environmental standards in the world,” Furchtgott-Roth said. She also pointed out that banking on China for these materials is like handing them the keys to our own disaster; it’s a huge security risk. Remember how Europe got slammed when Russia cut off its natural gas? We’re just begging for a rerun.

Steve Coonen, a former Department of Defense official, agrees. He notes that the U.S. has all the rare earth elements it needs but has effectively chained itself up with unnecessary restrictions, all in the name of environmental protection. Because nothing says “national security” like ensuring your country can’t access the materials it needs to defend itself.

China, which already controls nearly half of the world’s antimony production, is also the source of 63% of U.S. antimony imports. And guess how much marketable antimony the U.S. produced in 2023? A big fat zero. But hey, at least we’re number one in creating red tape!

And if things weren’t bad enough, China’s new export restrictions will take effect on September 15, locking down the global antimony supply even tighter. Lewis Black, CEO of Almonty Industries, called China’s move “confrontational,” but let’s be honest—it’s more like China flexing its muscles while the U.S. tries to untangle itself from its own regulations.

Let’s not forget that China has been playing this game with other critical minerals like germanium and gallium since 2023. If you’re going to dominate the world, why not start by monopolizing the very resources your rivals need?

Perpetua Resources, for its part, is doing its best to stay optimistic, even as it braces for an 18-year marathon just to start extracting antimony from its site. They acknowledge that NEPA has its benefits—like transparency and community input—but they’re also fully on board with permitting reform because good projects should be about progress, not paperwork.

In the meantime, America’s reliance on China for minerals continues to grow, with experts warning that this dependency is a ticking time bomb. But until lawmakers decide to prioritize national security over red tape, we’ll just have to watch as China tightens its grip, one mineral at a time.