Critical Mineral Resources: National Policy and Critical Minerals List

According to a 2008 National Research Council report, a critical mineral is a nonfuel mineral that is essential for use and faces considerable supply chain vulnerabilities. Demand for these components in the agriculture, defense, electronics, energy, manufacturing, refining and transportation sectors is projected to grow in the next decade, likely leading to increased demand for critical mineral resources and supply chain vulnerabilities. Potential issues facing Congress include the effectiveness of current federal activities related to improving the resilience of the critical mineral supplies for the United States and whether to alter legislative direction on critical minerals activities, in the context of Administrations’ actions and changing demands and access to supplies. A supply chain may include extraction, processing, component development, end-use, and recycling technology. The supply chain may be vulnerable if it lacks diversity or capacity. The United States imports large percentages of some extracted and processed critical mineral resources, as well as some critical mineral-based components and products from other countries. Some countries, such as China, dominate parts of some critical mineral supply chains and may restrict exports or use their market power to manipulate commodity prices creating supply chain vulnerabilities for other countries. Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (P.L. 116-260), which amended the National Materials and Minerals Policy, Research, and Development Act of 1980 (1980 Act; P.L. 96-479), making it U.S. policy to facilitate critical mineral research and development and critical mineral extraction, processing, component, and product development in the United States and in cooperation with other open market countries. More specifically, Section 7002 of the Energy Act of 2020 (Division Z of P.L. 116-260, as amended by P.L. 118-233) amended national materials and minerals policy language from the 1980 Act, to define critical mineral in statute and to specify criteria for developing a critical minerals list (CML). The Energy Act of 2020 directed the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), to identify critical minerals and develop a CML. Pursuant to the Energy Act of 2020, a critical mineral is any mineral, element, substance, or material designated as critical by the USGS because it is essential to the economic and national security of the United States, has a vulnerable supply chain, and serves an essential function in manufacturing a product. The definition excludes fuel minerals, water, snow or ice, and common varieties of sand, gravel, stone, pumice, cinders, and clay. In February 2022, the USGS published a list of 50 critical minerals and described a methodology for determining criticality based on the statutory criteria. Under the Energy Act of 2020, the USGS is to update the CML every three years or more often. On November 7, 2025, the USGS published a “Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals” in the Federal Register and used a new methodology compared with the methodology used to develop the 2022 CML for determining mineral criticality. The 2025 CML of 60 critical minerals includes aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, boron, cerium, cesium, chromium, cobalt, copper, dysprosium, erbium, europium, fluorspar, gadolinium, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, holmium, indium, iridium, lanthanum, lead, lithium, lutetium, magnesium, manganese, metallurgical coal, neodymium, nickel, niobium, palladium, phosphate, platinum, potash, praseodymium, rhenium, rhodium, rubidium, ruthenium, samarium, scandium, silicon, silver, tantalum, tellurium, terbium, thulium, tin, titanium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium, ytterbium, yttrium, zinc, and zirconium. Minerals listed in bold are new additions compared with the 2022 CML based on USGS’s 2025 methodology. Those in italic are new additions in response to public and interagency input. The USGS is prioritizing critical minerals in its assessment of potential domestic resources and other research. In June 2021, Congress, via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA; P.L. 117-58), authorized and appropriated funds for a national mineral research, mapping, and assessment initiative by the USGS called Earth Mapping Resources Initiative. Congress is considering whether the definition of a critical mineral, the methodology for developing a CML, and the CML itself are sufficient to advance critical mineral resources identification and development per national materials and minerals policy. Congress also is considering how the CML may contribute to identifying supply chain vulnerabilities and how the CML compares with critical mineral priorities developed by other departments, such as the Department of Energy. Some legislation introduced in the 119th Congress would amend national policy and aspects of the definition of critical mineral and the CML. Other legislation would amend other policies to help to improve resiliency of critical mineral supply chains related to the identification of critical mineral resources and supply chain vulnerabilities.