M. Garside
Research lead covering energy, chemicals & resources
Critical mineral mining in the U.S. - statistics & facts
In 2022, the United States Secretary of the Interior published the most recent final list of U.S. critical minerals, which includes 50 minerals. Of the critical minerals defined by the U.S., only about half are produced domestically, albeit not at volumes that fulfill national demand in most cases. For the remaining critical minerals, the U.S. is reliant on imports due to a lack of viable resources. Of those produced domestically, aluminum and zinc were the most voluminously produced U.S. critical minerals in 2022, with production amounting to over 872,000 metric tons and 761,000 metric tons that year, respectively. Critical minerals generally consist of strategic non-fuel commodities without any substitutes that are extracted and processed in concentrated world regions, and which encompass the necessary raw materials for technologies such as renewable energy equipment, batteries, electric vehicles, and electronics. Recently, the U.S. has been increasing its efforts to reduce its reliance on foreign supply of critical minerals, including providing funding for mapping its critical mineral resources and the first rare earth element and critical minerals extraction and separation refinery in the U.S., among other initiatives.
The United States’ critical minerals are as follows: aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, cerium, cesium, chromium, cobalt, dysprosium, erbium, europium, fluorspar, gadolinium, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, holmium, indium, iridium, lanthanum, lithium, lutetium, magnesium, manganese, neodymium, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, praseodymium, rhodium, rubidium, ruthenium, samarium, scandium, tantalum, tellurium, terbium, thulium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, ytterbium, yttrium, zinc, and zirconium.
The United States’ critical minerals are as follows: aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, cerium, cesium, chromium, cobalt, dysprosium, erbium, europium, fluorspar, gadolinium, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, holmium, indium, iridium, lanthanum, lithium, lutetium, magnesium, manganese, neodymium, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, praseodymium, rhodium, rubidium, ruthenium, samarium, scandium, tantalum, tellurium, terbium, thulium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, ytterbium, yttrium, zinc, and zirconium.
Critical mineral supply and demand in the United States
In addition to being the top two critical minerals based on production, aluminum and zinc were also the most consumed U.S. critical minerals in 2023, with apparent consumption amounting to 1.8 million metric tons and 970,000 metric tons, respectively. Magnesium and zinc were the leading critical minerals in the U.S. based on reserve volume, with magnesium oxide reserves amounting to 35 million metric tons and zinc reserves amounting to 6.6 million metric tons in 2023. Ultimately, however, the U.S. critical minerals supply is currently far below demand, which has presented the country with an elusive challenge.Bridging the gap: how will the U.S. harness a more secure critical minerals supply?
With demand expected to increase considerably in the near future, along with concerns over securing stable supply chains, ramping up the domestic supply of critical minerals in the U.S. through various innovative means is an important objective. For instance, the fact that in order to receive the Inflation Reduction Act’s Clean Vehicle Tax Credit, part of the vehicle’s critical minerals need to have been processed or extracted in either the U.S. or a country that the U.S. has a free trade agreement with. U.S. recycling of critical minerals is one solution, as is recovery of critical minerals from hard rock mine tailings and coal waste. In the near term, however, it seems that U.S. critical mineral supply will be met through more of the status quo: by importing minerals produced through conventional mining and processing abroad.
