Critical minerals are essential to the economy and national security of the Nation and have supply chains that are vulnerable to disruption.
The USGS leads the government in developing the List of Critical Minerals and provides crucial and rich information about critical mineral availability, supply chains, and economic impacts. The USGS uses a cross-sectoral and data-driven approach to developing the List.
What are critical minerals?
Minerals that are “critical” are both essential to the Nation’s economy or national security and have supply chains that are vulnerable to disruption.
Critical minerals are defined in the Energy Act of 2020. According to the Act, minerals are considered “critical” if they fit three criteria:
- The mineral must be “essential to the economic or national security of the United States.”
- The mineral must “serve an essential function in the manufacturing of a product… the absence of which would have significant consequences for the economic or national security of the United States”
- The mineral must have a supply chain that is “vulnerable to disruption (including restrictions associated with foreign political risk, abrupt demand growth, military conflict, violent unrest, anti-competitive or protectionist behaviors, and other risks through-out the supply chain)”.
In addition, the Act specifies that the “critical minerals’ can not include fuel minerals such as oil, gas, coal or uranium. Water, ice, snow or “common varieties of sand, gravel, stone, pumice, cinders and clay” are also excluded from being critical minerals.
The USGS and the List of Critical Minerals
The USGS leads the government in developing the List of Critical Minerals. The most recent List of Critical Minerals was published in 2022 and contains 50 minerals.
According to the Energy Act of 2020, the USGS is required to review and publish the list of critical minerals – and the methodology used to create it - at least once every three years.
The USGS has a long history of mineral supply chain analysis and mineral data collection, including through the National Mineral Information Center. In developing the List of Critical Minerals, the USGS considers minerals used in over 230 sectors of the economy, from energy infrastructure to advanced technology manufacturing, and from aerospace engineering to medical equipment.
Learn About Critical Minerals
Why does the List of Critical Minerals matter?
How is the List of Critical Minerals created?
A Brief History of Critical Minerals
How do critical minerals affect me?
critical minerals science
The List of Critical Minerals informs major investments and decisions in both the public- and private- sectors. Here are some ways that the list of critical minerals is used:
To Assess Supply Chain Risks
The List of Critical Minerals is a key way that both the public- and private- sectors assess supply chain risks of specific commodities. Federal agencies and industries use the List of Critical Minerals to identify which parts of their core functions could be most vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, better plan for a potential disruption, identify substitutes for vulnerable supply chains, and effectively allocate resources towards building resilience.
To Make Decisions and Investments that Bolster Supply Chain Resilience
The federal government relies on the List of Critical Minerals to help prioritize investments and decisions that strengthen the most vulnerable and important mineral supply chains. Federal agencies have a number of tools available to strengthen the security of mineral supply chains including policies, incentives, targeted investments and trade relationships.
Because the List of Critical Minerals is developed using specific criteria, federal agencies can use the List - and the analysis behind the List- to gain insights into how these tools might be used to strengthen specific commodity supply chains. The interagency community coordinates efforts related to mineral supply chains through the Critical Minerals Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council.
To Identify Effective Actions and Emerging Vulnerabilities
Reviewing the List every three years provides an opportunity to revisit and monitor the status of specific mineral supply chains. This ongoing analysis can provide information about what actions were or were not effective at strengthening mineral supply chains in the past and identify mineral supply chains that have emerging vulnerabilities.
The 3-Year Process
The USGS leverages expertise across the federal government, in private industry and in academia to understand how minerals are produced and used and to assess their supply chain risks. The process for developing the List of Critical Minerals is laid out in the Energy Act of 2020 (Section 7002). The steps are:
1. At least once every 3 years, the USGS develops a data-driven methodology for determining which minerals meet the criteria for criticality laid out in the Energy Act of 2020.
2. While updating the methodology for the List of Critical Minerals, the USGS consults with experts in academia, government and industry to ensure that the methodology incorporates the most advanced science and data to that point and reflects the perspectives of diverse decision-makers.
3. USGS drafts a methodology for developing the List of Critical Minerals.
4. The draft is peer-reviewed by experts in the field and revised accordingly before being published.
5. USGS uses the published methodology to develop the draft List of Critical Minerals.
6. In accordance with the Energy Act of 2020, the Secretary of the Interior has the authority to provide additions to the List at this point in the process.
7. The USGS seeks input from other federal agencies through the Critical Minerals Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council.
8. USGS posts the published methodology and draft List of Critical Minerals to the Federal Register to solicit public input.
9. USGS receives comments and questions from a wide cross-section of the public, including from academic experts, industry professionals, companies, public citizens and Tribes. USGS responses to public comment on the 2022 List of Critical Minerals are summarized here.
10. USGS publishes the List of Critical Minerals. The List is posted on the Federal Register.
Our Data-Driven Methodology
USGS uses data on foreign and domestic mineral production, mineral imports and exports, industry use, and other data to develop the List of Critical Minerals. Many of these data are collected and analyzed by the USGS National Mineral Information Center. USGS reviews the methodology at least once every 3 years.
Methodology for the 2022 List of Critical Minerals
To develop the 2022 List of Critical Minerals, USGS assessed the supply risk of each mineral commodity up for consideration, based on four factors:
1, Disruption potential: Is the commodity primarily produced in countries that have a low willingness or ability to supply to the U.S.?
Disruption potential is related to how much of a commodity’s global production is concentrated in countries that are relatively unwilling or unable (due to political or economic instability, workforce or infrastructure inadequacies, regulations, etc…) to supply to the U.S. Mineral commodities that are produced primarily in countries that are economically or politically unstable, or that do not have a reliable trade relationship with the US have a higher supply risk.
2. Trade exposure: how reliant is the U.S. on other countries for the mineral commodity?
High trade exposure means that the U.S. imports much of the mineral commodity it consumes from other countries. When the U.S. sources most of a commodity from other countries, the supply of that commodity has a higher potential to be impacted by disruptions across the global economy like natural disasters, regional political instabilities or changes in trade relationships.
3. Economic vulnerability: how important is the commodity to the economic health of the U.S.?
Industries that rely on a commodity and have a low profit margin are more vulnerable to a supply chain disruption. If these industries are also particularly important to the economic health of the U.S., then the overall supply risk for that commodity may be high. To determine economic vulnerability, the List of Critical Minerals methodology takes into account: which industries use the commodity, how much money the industry spends on obtaining that commodity versus the industry’s operating profit, and how much the industry contributes to the U.S. GDP.
4. Domestic Single Point of Failure: is the commodity produced domestically, but by only one producer?
Mineral supply chains are vulnerable if the mineral is produced domestically by only a single producer because disruptions to that single producer can significantly impact the U.S.’s total supply. This is especially important to consider if there is not enough data to quantitatively assess the supply risk for a mineral.
The Energy Act of 2020 states that if available data are insufficient to provide a quantitative basis for calculating supply risk, qualitative evidence may be used to the extent necessary. Therefore, USGS use both a quantitative and qualitative method for developing the List of Critical Minerals.
Quantitative Supply Chain Risk
For minerals for which sufficient data existed, the disruption potential, trade exposure and economic vulnerability were calculated for each commodity using trade, production, industry and other data for multiple years, with recent years given more weight. These factors were then combined to determine the overall supply risk for each mineral commodity.
Qualitative Supply Chain Risk
Some minerals, such as certain rare earth elements, lacked the data to calculate these factors. For these minerals only, their supply risk was assessed qualitatively based on the available data.
The List
All mineral commodities on the List of Critical Minerals:
- have a quantitative supply chain risk score above the determined threshold
- were assessed qualitatively to have a high supply risk based on available data
- or have a single point of failure in their domestic production.
For more details, see the full technical methodology.
Methodology for the 2025 List of Critical Minerals
In preparation to develop the 2025 List of Critical Minerals, the USGS is in the process of updating this methodology to include additional data and advancements in supply chain modelling.
Although you may not see them, you likely rely on critical mineral supply chains every day. Critical minerals are essential parts of phones and laptops, airplanes and satellite systems, medical devices, electric car batteries, wind turbines, solar panels,and even cosmetics.
When these supply chains are disrupted, our entire society feels the effects. For instance, during the Covid-19 pandemic, disruptions to the supply chains of critical minerals in microchips produced long waits for cars, laptops, and even dishwashers.
Explore some of the ways you might encounter critical minerals in your daily life below.
in Renewable Energy
in Medical Implants
in Mobile Devices
in Satellites
in Fireworks
How did the List of Critical Minerals come to be?
A "National Plan"
Calls for a “national mineral plan” became loud in the 1920s, as American scientists recognized the importance of understanding mineral resources and supply chains in an increasingly globalized and industrial world. Around the same time, the USGS began using standardized methods to collect mineral statistics, including information about mineral production and supply chains.
The Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act
In 1939, as WWII began and mineral supplies became stressed, Congress passed the “Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act.” The Act was intended to bolster stockpiling and supply chains of “certain strategic and critical materials” that would become essential to national defense. The President was given the authority to name which materials were considered “strategic and critical”.
A Renewed Interest
In more recent years, as supply chain science has advanced and the Nation’s mineral needs have changed, there has been a renewed interest in identifying minerals that are critical today, and especially in sectors within and beyond the national defense sphere, including for advanced consumer technologies and energy infrastructure.
A number of pieces of legislation in recent years have laid the foundation for developing increasingly sophisticated lists of critical minerals. Additionally, in 2010, the National Science and Technology Council established a Critical Minerals Subcommittee to coordinate across federal agencies on matters related to critical minerals
Explore the timeline below for more recent critical mineral events.
From mapping potential resources to annual mineral reports, the USGS delivers science that is essential for short- and long- term planning on how to manage, use and strengthen the supply chains of mineral resources.
Explore some of our topics below.
Mineral Assessments
Mapping with a focus on critical mineral resources
Mineral Supply Chain Analysis
Critical Minerals in Mine Wastes
Critical minerals are essential to the economy and national security of the Nation and have supply chains that are vulnerable to disruption.
The USGS leads the government in developing the List of Critical Minerals and provides crucial and rich information about critical mineral availability, supply chains, and economic impacts. The USGS uses a cross-sectoral and data-driven approach to developing the List.
What are critical minerals?
Minerals that are “critical” are both essential to the Nation’s economy or national security and have supply chains that are vulnerable to disruption.
Critical minerals are defined in the Energy Act of 2020. According to the Act, minerals are considered “critical” if they fit three criteria:
- The mineral must be “essential to the economic or national security of the United States.”
- The mineral must “serve an essential function in the manufacturing of a product… the absence of which would have significant consequences for the economic or national security of the United States”
- The mineral must have a supply chain that is “vulnerable to disruption (including restrictions associated with foreign political risk, abrupt demand growth, military conflict, violent unrest, anti-competitive or protectionist behaviors, and other risks through-out the supply chain)”.
In addition, the Act specifies that the “critical minerals’ can not include fuel minerals such as oil, gas, coal or uranium. Water, ice, snow or “common varieties of sand, gravel, stone, pumice, cinders and clay” are also excluded from being critical minerals.
The USGS and the List of Critical Minerals
The USGS leads the government in developing the List of Critical Minerals. The most recent List of Critical Minerals was published in 2022 and contains 50 minerals.
According to the Energy Act of 2020, the USGS is required to review and publish the list of critical minerals – and the methodology used to create it - at least once every three years.
The USGS has a long history of mineral supply chain analysis and mineral data collection, including through the National Mineral Information Center. In developing the List of Critical Minerals, the USGS considers minerals used in over 230 sectors of the economy, from energy infrastructure to advanced technology manufacturing, and from aerospace engineering to medical equipment.
Learn About Critical Minerals
Why does the List of Critical Minerals matter?
How is the List of Critical Minerals created?
A Brief History of Critical Minerals
How do critical minerals affect me?
critical minerals science
The List of Critical Minerals informs major investments and decisions in both the public- and private- sectors. Here are some ways that the list of critical minerals is used:
To Assess Supply Chain Risks
The List of Critical Minerals is a key way that both the public- and private- sectors assess supply chain risks of specific commodities. Federal agencies and industries use the List of Critical Minerals to identify which parts of their core functions could be most vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, better plan for a potential disruption, identify substitutes for vulnerable supply chains, and effectively allocate resources towards building resilience.
To Make Decisions and Investments that Bolster Supply Chain Resilience
The federal government relies on the List of Critical Minerals to help prioritize investments and decisions that strengthen the most vulnerable and important mineral supply chains. Federal agencies have a number of tools available to strengthen the security of mineral supply chains including policies, incentives, targeted investments and trade relationships.
Because the List of Critical Minerals is developed using specific criteria, federal agencies can use the List - and the analysis behind the List- to gain insights into how these tools might be used to strengthen specific commodity supply chains. The interagency community coordinates efforts related to mineral supply chains through the Critical Minerals Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council.
To Identify Effective Actions and Emerging Vulnerabilities
Reviewing the List every three years provides an opportunity to revisit and monitor the status of specific mineral supply chains. This ongoing analysis can provide information about what actions were or were not effective at strengthening mineral supply chains in the past and identify mineral supply chains that have emerging vulnerabilities.
The 3-Year Process
The USGS leverages expertise across the federal government, in private industry and in academia to understand how minerals are produced and used and to assess their supply chain risks. The process for developing the List of Critical Minerals is laid out in the Energy Act of 2020 (Section 7002). The steps are:
1. At least once every 3 years, the USGS develops a data-driven methodology for determining which minerals meet the criteria for criticality laid out in the Energy Act of 2020.
2. While updating the methodology for the List of Critical Minerals, the USGS consults with experts in academia, government and industry to ensure that the methodology incorporates the most advanced science and data to that point and reflects the perspectives of diverse decision-makers.
3. USGS drafts a methodology for developing the List of Critical Minerals.
4. The draft is peer-reviewed by experts in the field and revised accordingly before being published.
5. USGS uses the published methodology to develop the draft List of Critical Minerals.
6. In accordance with the Energy Act of 2020, the Secretary of the Interior has the authority to provide additions to the List at this point in the process.
7. The USGS seeks input from other federal agencies through the Critical Minerals Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council.
8. USGS posts the published methodology and draft List of Critical Minerals to the Federal Register to solicit public input.
9. USGS receives comments and questions from a wide cross-section of the public, including from academic experts, industry professionals, companies, public citizens and Tribes. USGS responses to public comment on the 2022 List of Critical Minerals are summarized here.
10. USGS publishes the List of Critical Minerals. The List is posted on the Federal Register.
Our Data-Driven Methodology
USGS uses data on foreign and domestic mineral production, mineral imports and exports, industry use, and other data to develop the List of Critical Minerals. Many of these data are collected and analyzed by the USGS National Mineral Information Center. USGS reviews the methodology at least once every 3 years.
Methodology for the 2022 List of Critical Minerals
To develop the 2022 List of Critical Minerals, USGS assessed the supply risk of each mineral commodity up for consideration, based on four factors:
1, Disruption potential: Is the commodity primarily produced in countries that have a low willingness or ability to supply to the U.S.?
Disruption potential is related to how much of a commodity’s global production is concentrated in countries that are relatively unwilling or unable (due to political or economic instability, workforce or infrastructure inadequacies, regulations, etc…) to supply to the U.S. Mineral commodities that are produced primarily in countries that are economically or politically unstable, or that do not have a reliable trade relationship with the US have a higher supply risk.
2. Trade exposure: how reliant is the U.S. on other countries for the mineral commodity?
High trade exposure means that the U.S. imports much of the mineral commodity it consumes from other countries. When the U.S. sources most of a commodity from other countries, the supply of that commodity has a higher potential to be impacted by disruptions across the global economy like natural disasters, regional political instabilities or changes in trade relationships.
3. Economic vulnerability: how important is the commodity to the economic health of the U.S.?
Industries that rely on a commodity and have a low profit margin are more vulnerable to a supply chain disruption. If these industries are also particularly important to the economic health of the U.S., then the overall supply risk for that commodity may be high. To determine economic vulnerability, the List of Critical Minerals methodology takes into account: which industries use the commodity, how much money the industry spends on obtaining that commodity versus the industry’s operating profit, and how much the industry contributes to the U.S. GDP.
4. Domestic Single Point of Failure: is the commodity produced domestically, but by only one producer?
Mineral supply chains are vulnerable if the mineral is produced domestically by only a single producer because disruptions to that single producer can significantly impact the U.S.’s total supply. This is especially important to consider if there is not enough data to quantitatively assess the supply risk for a mineral.
The Energy Act of 2020 states that if available data are insufficient to provide a quantitative basis for calculating supply risk, qualitative evidence may be used to the extent necessary. Therefore, USGS use both a quantitative and qualitative method for developing the List of Critical Minerals.
Quantitative Supply Chain Risk
For minerals for which sufficient data existed, the disruption potential, trade exposure and economic vulnerability were calculated for each commodity using trade, production, industry and other data for multiple years, with recent years given more weight. These factors were then combined to determine the overall supply risk for each mineral commodity.
Qualitative Supply Chain Risk
Some minerals, such as certain rare earth elements, lacked the data to calculate these factors. For these minerals only, their supply risk was assessed qualitatively based on the available data.
The List
All mineral commodities on the List of Critical Minerals:
- have a quantitative supply chain risk score above the determined threshold
- were assessed qualitatively to have a high supply risk based on available data
- or have a single point of failure in their domestic production.
For more details, see the full technical methodology.
Methodology for the 2025 List of Critical Minerals
In preparation to develop the 2025 List of Critical Minerals, the USGS is in the process of updating this methodology to include additional data and advancements in supply chain modelling.
Although you may not see them, you likely rely on critical mineral supply chains every day. Critical minerals are essential parts of phones and laptops, airplanes and satellite systems, medical devices, electric car batteries, wind turbines, solar panels,and even cosmetics.
When these supply chains are disrupted, our entire society feels the effects. For instance, during the Covid-19 pandemic, disruptions to the supply chains of critical minerals in microchips produced long waits for cars, laptops, and even dishwashers.
Explore some of the ways you might encounter critical minerals in your daily life below.
in Renewable Energy
in Medical Implants
in Mobile Devices
in Satellites
in Fireworks
How did the List of Critical Minerals come to be?
A "National Plan"
Calls for a “national mineral plan” became loud in the 1920s, as American scientists recognized the importance of understanding mineral resources and supply chains in an increasingly globalized and industrial world. Around the same time, the USGS began using standardized methods to collect mineral statistics, including information about mineral production and supply chains.
The Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act
In 1939, as WWII began and mineral supplies became stressed, Congress passed the “Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act.” The Act was intended to bolster stockpiling and supply chains of “certain strategic and critical materials” that would become essential to national defense. The President was given the authority to name which materials were considered “strategic and critical”.
A Renewed Interest
In more recent years, as supply chain science has advanced and the Nation’s mineral needs have changed, there has been a renewed interest in identifying minerals that are critical today, and especially in sectors within and beyond the national defense sphere, including for advanced consumer technologies and energy infrastructure.
A number of pieces of legislation in recent years have laid the foundation for developing increasingly sophisticated lists of critical minerals. Additionally, in 2010, the National Science and Technology Council established a Critical Minerals Subcommittee to coordinate across federal agencies on matters related to critical minerals
Explore the timeline below for more recent critical mineral events.
From mapping potential resources to annual mineral reports, the USGS delivers science that is essential for short- and long- term planning on how to manage, use and strengthen the supply chains of mineral resources.