The US government has proposed adding copper, silver and potash to its list of critical minerals for the first time.
The Department of the Interior on Monday released a draft 2025 list of 54 minerals deemed critical to the US economy and national security. The update, developed by the US Geological Survey (USGS), includes six new additions: copper, silver, potash, silicon, rhenium and lead. Arsenic and tellurium were recommended for removal.
The Interior Department also signaled it may consider adding metallurgical coal and uranium, which are both considered “fuels” and currently excluded from the list, to the final version when it is published in 30 days.
The draft list will shape federal strategy, investment and permitting decisions around domestic mining, recycling and processing.
“President Trump has made clear that strengthening America’s economic and national security means securing the resources that fuel our way of life,” said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “This draft list of critical minerals provides a clear, science-based roadmap to reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries, expand domestic production and unleash American innovation.”
The list is updated every three years under the Energy Act of 2020. It began with a 2017 executive order that directed agencies to evaluate vulnerabilities in US mineral supply chains.
“The draft 2025 list and methodology reflect USGS advances in forecasting potential mineral supply chain disruptions, as called for in the Energy Act of 2020,” said USGS acting director Sarah Ryker. “Minerals-based industries contributed over $4-trillion to the US economy in 2024, and with this methodology we can pinpoint which industries may feel the greatest impacts of supply disruptions and understand where strategic domestic investments or international trade relationships may help mitigate risk.”
The new model tested more than 1 200 disruption scenarios for 84 minerals across 402 industries. The analysis highlighted samarium, rhodium, lutetium, terbium and dysprosium among the commodities posing the greatest economic risks.
While probability-weighted impacts amount to a fraction of US GDP, the report warns that a sudden disruption of a single mineral could reverberate through entire sectors, such as semiconductor manufacturing or defence.
National Mining Association (NMA) president and CEO Rich Nolan applauded the USGS for updating its critical minerals list with a number of minerals that he said were “essential to everything from rebuilding and modernising the nation’s infrastructure to supporting our national security and providing the irreplaceable inputs to advance our technological leadership”.
However, Nolan noted that the NMA believed all minerals were critical. “Many so-called critical minerals are only found because they are either co-located with or are produced in the processing of other minerals. And the rapid pace of innovation means the minerals used in today’s technologies may be different than those needed tomorrow. Given those realities, any policies applied to a critical mineral listing should be applicable to all US mined materials.”
The draft list will be published in the Federal Register on August 26, with a 30-day public comment period.