CRITICAL MINERALS IN THE UNITED STATES: CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Almost every sector of the world economy depends on minerals. Over the past half-century, mineral supply chains have become more complex as new technologies rely on an increasing variety of minerals. In addition, sourcing minerals is fraught with trade-offs. Most paths through the energy transition are minerals intensive, and therefore also potentially land intensive and water intensive; neither domestic production nor trade eliminates these challenges. In response to these complexities, a decade ago the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s National Science and Technology Council launched interagency coordination on critical minerals. Today, this coordination includes monitoring drivers of criticality and developing strategies to strengthen critical mineral supply chains. In recent years these planning efforts have been rewarded by legislation and funding. In 2019-2022 the Energy Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS and Science Act, and use of the Defense Production Act have expanded U.S. federal investments in domestic mineral supply chains through mapping, recovery technologies, processing, recycling, permitting, and waste management. The USGS role is to provide geoscience such as mineral resources mapping and assessments; and to provide mineral commodities data and supply chain analysis. With the recent funding, the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative is modernizing the nation’s mapping of critical mineral resources both still in the ground and in mine waste, and sister agencies are reinvigorating development of processing and reprocessing techniques for those resources. The USGS also develops the multi-sector, whole-of-government list of critical minerals, integrating inputs from other federal agencies. Those agencies then use the list and its supporting analysis, for example to guide investments in specific manufacturing sectors’ supply chains and to develop trade agreements. USGS data from 2022 show that the mineral economy has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, and concerted federal actions and funding are investing further in priority supply chains. However, structural challenges such as long-term research gaps, environmental impacts of mining, and decline in the geoscience and industrial workforce will be slow to improve.