Former CIA Advisor Reveals the Domestic Supply Chain Hidden Beneath U.S. Soil

As Global Dependencies Collapse, One Former CIA Advisor Points to a Solution Buried at Home

/EIN News/ -- WASHINGTON, April 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With global supply chains under pressure and tensions rising over control of critical materials, former CIA advisor Jim Rickards says the solution doesn’t lie in foreign partnerships, high-tech breakthroughs, or emergency spending.

It lies beneath our feet.

“We don’t need to look to China. We don’t need to invent some miracle technology,” Rickards says. “We already have what we need — we’ve just been blocking ourselves from using it.”

In a recently released interview, Rickards reveals what he calls “America’s domestic supply chain” — a vast reserve of essential materials locked beneath federally controlled land, protected by legal code, and never activated.

A Resource Hidden by Regulation, Not Geography

According to Rickards, the materials stored in these reserves — lithium, copper, silver, rare earth elements — form the backbone of nearly every future-facing industry: electric grids, artificial intelligence, defense systems, robotics, and semiconductors.

“These aren’t luxury metals. These are strategic,” he says.

The problem? Rickards says decades of unchecked federal agency control shut off access to this land, effectively cutting off the United States from its own supply chain.

The Supreme Court Decision That Broke the Blockade

The 2024 reversal of the Chevron Doctrine by the U.S. Supreme Court stripped federal agencies of their unilateral regulatory power. Rickards believes that ruling removed the final obstacle keeping this domestic reserve from being utilized.

“This is not about theory. This is about access,” Rickards explains. “And for the first time in a generation, that access is now legally possible.”

A System Built for National Independence

Rickards draws a sharp contrast between today's economic models and the principles the country was founded on:

“We didn’t run on debt back then. We ran on what we had — tariffs, resources, hard assets. And it worked.”

He points to the Reconstruction-era laws that first established federal control of these lands as a safeguard — a way to ensure long-term prosperity.

“This wasn’t a loophole. It was a deliberate choice — to hold something back, in case we needed it,” Rickards says.

Now, he believes that moment has come.

A Supply Chain That Can’t Be Outsourced

With foreign powers asserting control over global mineral markets — and some actively restricting exports — Rickards says America must act fast to secure what it already owns.

“We are the only nation that locks up its own strategic materials,” he warns.  “And if we don’t flip the switch now, we may not get another chance.”

About Jim Rickards

Jim Rickards is a lawyer, economist, and bestselling author who has advised the U.S. Treasury, CIA, and Pentagon on strategic threats and economic policy. He has participated in top-level financial war games and served as general counsel during the Long-Term Capital Management crisis. His books include Currency Wars, The Road to Ruin, and The Death of Money.

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