Ford Motor Co is pushing the Biden administration to expedite permitting for critical mineral mining projects to support battery metals mining for electric vehicles, Kallanish reports.

In the US, it can take up to 10 years to win a permit for a project to mine lithium, cobalt, nickel, or graphite, compared to two to three years to win similar permits in Canada and Australia without sacrificing environmental protections, Ford says in a letter to the Department of the Interior.

The US should limit permitting to 2-3 years and should also expand the implementation of the Defense Production Act to expedite battery mineral projects on federal lands, the company says in a submission to Interior as the agency develops recommendations on changing US mining laws.

The company also asked the agency to fund research and mapping of critical mineral deposits, increase transparency in the permitting process, and include emissions assessments in permitting evaluations.

Those metals are in big and increasing demand, and the mining and processing is dominated by China.

“Today’s lengthy, costly and inefficient permitting process makes it difficult for American businesses to invest in the extraction and processing of critical minerals in the United States,” says Chris Smith, Ford’s chief government affairs officer in the letter, as first reported by the Detroit News.

Similar suggestions were submitted to Interior earlier from the Alliance for Automotive Innovations, an advocacy group. Rivian also submitted similar comments this week.