The US government has drafted an expansion of its critical-minerals list to head off what an official said were potential “supply-chain disruptions”, in a move that experts say could help onshore more production of semiconductor chips, automotive systems and solar panels instead of relying on China.
The US Department of the Interior released the draft 2025 List of Critical Minerals on Tuesday, adding 51 mined commodities such as copper, lead, potash, silicon and silver.
This marks the second update since 2017 to the list that guides government strategy, such as any tax breaks, and the speed of permitting decisions. The idea is “to secure the minerals needed to drive the US economy and protect national security”, the department’s US Geological Survey (USGS) said in a statement.
It further “informs” investments in mining and the recovery of materials from mine waste, the statement said.
US Geological Survey’s acting director, Sarah Ryker, said her agency had picked minerals by identifying industries most affected by supply disruptions and by determining where domestic investments or international trade relations could mitigate risks to individual supply chains.
Commonly cited sources of disruptions include sudden losses of access to minerals overseas, including from war, geopolitical disputes or shipping bottlenecks.
