Trump Is Into “Polymetallic Nodules”

Trump Is Into “Polymetallic Nodules”

“Trump’s Brazen Push to Mine the Ocean Floor” says the alarmist headline at Foreign Policy.

Last week, the president signed an executive order that would speed along efforts to explore and recover mineral wealth on the seafloor in both U.S. and international waters. Today, executives with a couple of companies pioneering undersea mining are testifying before the House Natural Resources Committee.

As Foreign Policy writer Christina Lu sees it, “Trump is embracing a nascent industry that has engendered fierce clashes among mining companies, countries, scientists, and environmentalists. The Trump administration’s move amounts to a sharp break in U.S. policy…”

A sharp break, yes. But it’s very much in keeping with the “American birthright” thesis that our Jim Rickards has been propounding this year.

In short, there’s a horde of energy and mineral wealth underneath vast tracts of federally owned land — potentially valued at up to $150 trillion. The Trump administration is keen to unlock that wealth.

Mining metals from the seafloor? That’s just the next logical step in this regard.

➢ Editor’s note: A short time ago, Jim wrapped up his American Wealth Summit — in which he revealed a patented strategy that could accelerate your gains from the $150 trillion American birthright. If you missed the event at 2:00 p.m. EDT, you can click here to watch the replay immediately.

If you’ve been reading these 5 Bullets for a couple of years or longer, you’re already familiar with the potential of undersea mining.

At a time when electric vehicles were all the rage, our tech-investing authority Ray Blanco said undersea mining was the only way to supply the necessary quantities of EV battery minerals.

“Polymetallic nodules” is what scientists call these undersea deposits. “Dark gray lumps of metal, roughly the size and shape of large potatoes,” is how Ray describes them — with “high concentrations of nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper.”

Manganese nodule collected from the Pacific Ocean
[Photo by Wikimedia Commons user “Kolle”]

Yes, it’s controversial.

As an article at Mother Jones puts it, “Scientists have warned that the process could irreparably alter the seabed, kill extremely rare sea creatures that haven’t been named or studied, and — depending on how the metals are carried up to the surface — risk introducing metals into fisheries that many Pacific peoples rely upon.”

But the alarmists should relax a bit. It’s not as if giant underwater bulldozers and backhoes would be digging up huge quantities of earth.

Thanks to a happy geological accident, the nodules sit atop the ocean floor, ripe for the picking. As Ray explained it here in 2023, “These metal-rich rocks litter much of the ocean floor, making the ‘mining’ process more like retrieval than conventional mining.

“Another argument in favor of the process? Transportation via ship is far more efficient than any method on land.”

Indeed, the green-energy crowd should be receptive to undersea mining — given that in many instances “the materials required to produce clean energy solutions simply cannot be mined on land.”

Yes, the technology is still by and large untested and there might be unforeseen costs.

“The processes we use to mine these metals on land, however, also have steep costs,” Ray points out — “and mining the oceans might be a significant improvement in many ways.”

Again, it’s early days for undersea mining — but it’s something we’ll continue to keep an eye on, especially in light of Trump’s new executive order.

In the meantime, the president is about to make an entirely different move in early May that could light a fire under certain stocks linked to the “American birthright.”

That’s what Jim Rickards described this afternoon during his American Wealth Summit — complete with three new opportunities to potentially make up to 10 times your money or more in a matter of weeks.

There’s still time to move on these opportunities — but not much, considering that once Trump acts, perhaps as early as Friday, it will be too late to set yourself up to profit. Check out the American Wealth Summit at this link.

AMZN: “A Hostile and Political Act”

Apparently even a $1 million contribution to Trump’s inauguration doesn’t buy you the president’s goodwill.

That’s how much Amazon founder Jeff Bezos kicked in for Trump 47’s big bash in January.

As we mentioned in the run-up to Election Day, Bezos had made his peace with the prospect of a second Trump term — even barring the editorial board at his Washington Post from endorsing a presidential candidate.

But that was then and this is now: Early this morning, the Punchbowl News site reported that Amazon “will soon show how much Trump’s tariffs are adding to the price of each product, according to a person familiar with the plan. The shopping site will display how much of an item’s cost is derived from tariffs — right next to the product’s total listed price.”

The response from the White House was incandescent. “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

For its part Amazon says it never intended to make the labeling a widespread practice.

“The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” per a company statement. “Teams discuss ideas all the time. This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.”

➢ Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that sometime today Trump will sign an executive order dialing back the tariffs on imported vehicle parts — an important step to help protect auto worker jobs in Michigan, where he plans a rally tonight to mark the 100th day of his second term.

The rest of the stock market fared better than Amazon today.

Shortly before the close, the S&P 500 was up nearly 0.7% to 5,566 – the highest since the post-“Liberation Day” freefall. Treasury yields continue to ease off, the 10-year note down to nearly 4.17%.

Gold is in the red but still holding the line on $3,300. Silver is in the red but still holding the line on $33.

For no obvious reason crude tumbled 2.8% today. At $60.29, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate is the lowest in over two weeks.

Bitcoin has pushed past $95,000 for the moment. We’ll see if it can stick.

Follow-Up: The Pain in Spain

The lights are (mostly) back on in Spain and Portugal — and our initial assessment yesterday of what triggered the blackout seems to be holding up.

It all has to do with something called “inertia” — which in the context of the power grid means the steady, always-on spinning turbines powered by fossil fuels or uranium. Solar and wind just can’t supply the necessary inertia because the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow.

Apparently there was next to no wind in wide swaths of Spain yesterday — and at the moment just before the power went out at lunchtime, the grid was over 75% reliant on wind and solar.

A few things come to mind here, in no particular order…

• Several U.S. states are barreling down the same path as Spain in a fruitless quest for zero-carbon nirvana. Worse, some of them are in cold climates like New York and Michigan

• We’ll remind you once more the U.S. grid’s capacity is no greater now than it was over a decade ago… and AI data centers are sucking up ever-increasing quantities of juice

• The combined population of the area affected by the outage yesterday is about 60 million — on par with the big Northeast blackout of 2003.

Feeling vulnerable all of a sudden? Read on…

Power Outage Preparedness

It’s worth thinking about personal resilience at a time like this.

During the run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, we took note of concerns on the part of the “prepper” crowd that Moscow might try to knock out the U.S. power grid and communication systems.

Obviously nothing came of that… but the guidance we shared then still applies. No electricity means no credit/debit cards and no power to the gas pumps.

Keep a wad of cash, keep your tank at least half full and keep your battery-powered devices charged.

And keep a portable radio on hand. It might be old-school technology, but in a pinch it might also be your only source of information.

In addition to the power grid, the internet and the wireless network were down for many folks in Spain and Portugal — including an expat couple from Virginia named Siegfried and Christine, living on the outskirts of Madrid.

“If it wasn’t for the radio, we’d struggle to find out what’s happening,” they tell the BBC. “I think there might be a run on battery-operated radios as soon as the shops reopen.”

Of course, there’s an additional problem: By many accounts, not every radio station had the backup power to stay on the air.

Here in the States, there are about 75 “Primary Entry Point” radio stations that are outfitted for a true SHTF scenario, not just a power outage or natural disaster.

In 2018, the trade publication Inside Radio reported on WLW Cincinnati’s hardened setup in the suburb of Mason: ”The fenced-in, shed-like 8-by-20-foot structures include all the things needed to broadcast remotely, including a studio, backup transmitter and generator, as well as facilities for a two-person staff such as a 60-day supply of food and water, bunks and an air filtration system.” [Emphasis ours]

Pretty hard-core, huh? And FEMA foots most of the bill.

Ready for (nearly) anything: The SHTF studio at the transmitter site of WLW Cincinnati
[FEMA photo]

FEMA has a list of these PEP stations on its website. You can sort the list by state to find the station nearest you. Most of them are in the AM band with wide coverage areas, especially at night.

If you live in the sticks like me, you might want to invest in a quality AM radio instead of relying on whatever’s in your junk drawer. An excellent choice is the Sangean PR-D4W, currently available from Amazon and Walmart for about $70. If you want to go all out for performance, the CCRadio 2E from the American firm C. Crane will set you back $199.

As a bonus, both models come with the NOAA Weather Radio band and can trip an alarm in the event of something like a tornado warning.

Because you never know, right?

Mailbag: Nukes and Scandals

“I have long thought that the Indo-Pak skirmishes could well be the starting point of nuclear holocaust,” writes one of our regulars after yesterday’s edition.

“Perhaps, Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin were being prophetic when they wrote this verse to their very popular song ‘Kashmir,’ back in the ’70s:

Oh, all I see turns to brown

As the sun burns the ground.

And my eyes fill with sand

As I scan this wasted land.

Tryin' to find, tryin' to find where I've been, ah-ah, ah-ah...

“Praise the lord and pass the iodine pills…”

After we recounted the tale of Bill Clinton, Indonesian cash and a bipartisan cover-up off the top yesterday, a reader saw fit to write.

“First, a big thank you to you and your team.

“Sadly, the last 60-plus years of our republic are replete with betrayals from the left wing and the right wing of the buzzard. We the People are just plain buzzard bait.

“And they are still wondering why the People voted the way they did last November.

“Likely be betrayed again. But only time will tell.

“Again, thanks.”

Dave responds: And people think I’m cynical.

(I’m actually going to write about that sometime soon…)

Best regards,

Dave Gonigam
Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets