By Ernest Scheyder
March 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. military on Friday asked mining companies to help boost domestic supplies of 13 critical minerals used to make semiconductors, weapons and other products, a document reviewed by Reuters showed.
The request came one day before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran and is the latest example of Washington’s weak access to materials used widely in warfare.
The Pentagon asked members of the Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC), a group of companies, universities and others that supply the military, for proposals to be submitted by March 20 for projects that could mine, process or recycle nickel, graphite, rare earths and other minerals, the document showed.
The White House, DIBC and Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Washington; editing by Veronica Brown and Chizu Nomiyama)
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