U.S. Department of Commerce Report on Critical Minerals

On June 4, 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce released the interagency report that was submitted to the President pursuant to the Executive Order 13817, A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals. The report contains a government-wide action plan, including recommendations to advance research and development efforts, increase domestic activity across the supply chain, streamline permitting, and grow the American critical minerals workforce.

The report outlines five major topics:

1. A strategy to reduce the Nation’s reliance on critical minerals;
2. An assessment of progress toward developing critical minerals recycling and reprocessing technologies, and technological alternatives to critical minerals;
3. Options for accessing and developing critical minerals through investment and trade with our allies and partners;
4. A plan to improve the topographic, geologic, and geophysical mapping of the United States and make the resulting data and metadata electronically accessible to support private sector mineral exploration of critical minerals; and
5. Recommendations to streamline permitting and review processes related to developing leases; enhancing access to critical mineral resources; and increasing discovery, production, and domestic refining of critical minerals.”

The full report can be seen here.