Image: Photocollage, Kendra Jones
Rare Earth
Gallium and germanium
Gallium stands as the highest priority critical mineral according to assessments by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of the Interior, underscoring its fundamental importance to American technological sovereignty and economic security. This rare earth element functions as an essential component in semiconductor manufacturing, advanced military systems, and next generation telecommunications infrastructure. Gallium serves as a crucial element in developing autonomous vehicle capabilities for global automotive manufacturers, including Volkswagen, situating it at a critical nexus of technological innovation and strategic resource management in global competition.
Approximately 90 miles southeast of El Paso and just 20 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, Round Top Mountain near Sierra Blanca, Texas contains one of the United States' most significant deposits of rare earth minerals. This geologically distinctive formation holds what has been identified as the nation's most substantial deposit of gallium, alongside other critical elements. The strategic importance of this deposit increased dramatically after China implemented export restrictions on gallium and germanium in 2023, heightening concerns about supply chain vulnerabilities and national security implications.
Sierra Blanca presents several unexpected characteristics that complicate its role in resource development. Despite its seemingly remote location, this small community sits at a significant transportation crossroads where major highways converge with Union Pacific rail lines, making it a potential logistical hub.
The presence of an ancient volcanic formation created the conditions for rare earth deposits in the area, though positioning these valuable minerals above the Hueco Bolson Aquifer, creating complex environmental considerations. The area also experiences unusual weather patterns where localized storms can cause flash flooding while leaving adjacent areas completely dry.
Within Hudspeth County, one finds a demographic profile dramatically different from coastal urban centers driving technology demand, with a median household income significantly below national averages, raising questions about who bears the environmental costs and economic benefits of critical mineral development.
Sierra Blanca gained national political attention during the 1990s when legislation sponsored by then-Representative Bernie Sanders became entangled with controversial proposals for nuclear waste disposal in the area. The "Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact" approved in 1998 included a measure introduced by Sanders that would have allowed Vermont and Maine to ship their nuclear waste to a proposed facility in Sierra Blanca. This legislation, often referred to as the "Sanders Amendment," authorized Vermont to export its nuclear waste to Texas.
Residents mounted significant opposition to the proposal, arguing that Sierra Blanca was selected not for geological suitability but rather because of its predominantly low-income, Hispanic population. Critics noted that the community lacked political power to resist becoming a dumping ground for waste generated in wealthier, predominantly white states. The controversy highlighted tensions between progressive environmental policies in some states and their potential to externalize environmental costs onto vulnerable communities elsewhere.
Sanders defended his position by arguing that states needed regional solutions for nuclear waste management, maintaining that the compact represented responsible governance rather than environmental injustice. However, the episode remains a complex chapter in both Sanders' political history and Sierra Blanca's relationship with national resource management policies. The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission eventually rejected the proposed nuclear waste facility in 1998, citing geological concerns about the site's proximity to the underlying aquifer and potential seismic activity.
The location in general presents sophisticated governance challenges because it falls within the jurisdiction of the United States-México La Paz Agreement. Signed in 1983 and formally titled "Agreement for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Border Area," formally known in Spanish as "Acuerdo para la Protección y Mejoramiento del Ambiente en la Zona Fronteriza” but most commonly referred to in Mexico as "El Acuerdo de La Paz", taking its name from La Paz, Baja California Sur, where it was signed on August 14, 1983. This bilateral framework establishes environmental cooperation protocols within a 100-kilometer zone on each side of the international boundary.
The La Paz Agreement represents a significant milestone in transboundary environmental governance, requiring both nations to prevent, reduce, and eliminate pollution sources in the border region. The agreement mandates cooperation in addressing environmental emergencies, coordination on pollution abatement and control, assessment of environmental impacts from development projects, and exchange of scientific and technical information between the two nations.
This agreement gained particular prominence during the aforementioned 1990s controversy when it became a central reference point in contentious debates surrounding proposals to transport and store nuclear waste in Sierra Blanca. Environmental justice advocates and diplomatic representatives successfully leveraged the agreement's provisions to challenge waste disposal plans that could potentially affect shared aquifers and air quality across the international border.
Today, as critical mineral exploration and extraction intensify around Sierra Blanca, the La Paz Agreement provides an essential framework for navigating the environmental, economic, and security dimensions of resource development. The deposit's location above a regionally significant aquifer further complicates development considerations, necessitating sophisticated approaches to water resource management and contamination prevention.
The convergence of critical mineral deposits, transboundary environmental agreements, and water security concerns in this region illustrates the multidimensional challenges of transitioning to technologies that support climate goals while addressing environmental justice and geopolitical security considerations. As global competition for critical minerals accelerates, the Round Top Mountain deposit highlights how local landscapes increasingly reflect global tensions in resource governance and energy transition.
What remains remarkable about landscapes like Sierra Blanca is how their perceived value undergoes radical reconfiguration through decisions made continents away, in boardrooms and government ministries where the physical reality of this desert terrain exists only as abstraction. When Chinese officials restricted gallium exports in 2023, they instantaneously yet unknowingly transformed the economic and geopolitical significance of specific geological formations in West Texas. Similarly, when European automobile manufacturers intensify their commitment to autonomous vehicle technologies, they inadvertently elevate the strategic importance of mineral deposits their executives have likely never seen. This phenomenon represents a profound asymmetry: while decisions in Beijing, Brussels, or Tokyo immediately recalibrate the extraction potential and investment appeal of Sierra Blanca's mineral wealth, the reciprocal awareness rarely exists. The local landscape absorbs the consequences of these distant determinations through altered development trajectories, shifting environmental priorities, and reconfigured human relationships with the land. The temporal dimensions of this dynamic further complicate matters. Geological formations that remained economically insignificant for millennia suddenly acquire urgent importance through technological innovations or geopolitical maneuvering, creating abrupt transitions in how societies value and govern these spaces. The image of Round Top Mountain therefore exists simultaneously in multiple conceptual frameworks: as an ancient geological formation, as a contemporary site of potential national security significance, and as a node in global supply networks that transcend the immediate physical landscape.
The U.S. government, primarily through the USGS and Department of the Interior, doesn't publish a strict numerical ranking of critical minerals. Instead, the official list designates minerals as "critical" based on a multifaceted assessment framework rather than assigning them hierarchical positions of criticality.
The evaluation process employs a sophisticated methodology considering several interconnected factors:
Supply Risk: Vulnerability to supply disruptions due to geopolitical factors, production concentration, or trade restrictions
Economic Vulnerability: Impact on downstream industries and economic consequences of supply disruptions
National Security Implications: Importance for defense applications and strategic technologies
Production Concentration: Geographical concentration of production (often in potentially adversarial nations)
These assessments are dynamic, reflecting evolving technological needs, geopolitical landscapes, and market conditions. For instance, the importance of lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements has heightened in recent years due to their essential role in renewable energy technologies and advanced electronics.
My analytical work examining the La Paz Agreement through policy and international affairs perspectives, complemented by visual expressions through collage art, seeks to capture these complex interrelationships between governance frameworks, strategic resources, and borderland environments during a period of rapid transition in global mineral supply chains. The visual collage serves as a counterpoint to analytical assessment, offering an alternative way to conceptualize how unexpected places like Sierra Blanca become focal points in global resource competition, environmental governance, and technological development.
Project themes: Extraction Landscapes, Geopolitics, Governance Complexity in Shared Systems, Visual Epistemology