GAO, Foreign Ownership Opacity in Critical Mineral Mining on Federal Lands Flags Supply-Chain Risk

GAO found that 14 of 32 identifiable hardrock mining claimants on federal lands are subsidiaries of foreign entities, with at least two cases involving Chinese financial interests in foreign parent companies. The 1872 Mining Law contains no requirement for BLM or Forest Service to collect foreign parent-company ownership data, leaving a material gap in supply-chain visibility.