Report
Critical Minerals
Our position
Critical minerals are fundamental to American technological competitiveness, national defense, and decarbonization. However, mainstream environmentalism often opposes extraction and heavy industry, with advocates misguidedly hoping that recycling, substitution, and demand reduction can negate the need to manage mining and processing activities. Meanwhile, policy efforts lack focus and don’t yet address key bottlenecks for unlocking new production and industrial investment. Critical minerals policy must consider specific national goals for each supply chain and alleviate multiple critical constraints in parallel—especially mineral mapping, project permitting, hard tech innovation, project finance, and market certainty.
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Three pieces the team says to read first
Critical Minerals work
Research, analysis and everything we have put on the record: comments, testimony, statements, letters and endorsements.
Showing 7–12 of 23
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Analysis
The CAPEX Challenge Is Key to Industrial Competitiveness
Want critical minerals and reindustrialization? Offer low-cost loans
· Seaver Wang, Ryan Alimento, Matt Hellig
Analysis
What Drives Innovation in Heavy Industry?
Two case studies of innovation in nickel processing
· Ryan Alimento
Whitepaper
Congress Should Fund the Earth Mapping Resource Initiative
Public Mineral Mapping Pays for Itself
· Peter Cook, Seaver Wang
Report
The Critical Minerals Picture Book
Setting Specific Goals for Specific Minerals
· Seaver Wang, Peter Cook, Ryan Alimento
Analysis
The Aluminum Tech Stack
Downstream manufacturing mastery requires upstream scale
· Seaver Wang
Analysis
Mining Needs Permitting Reform Too
How stalled progress by Congress will push the mining sector abroad
· Peter Cook, Elizabeth McCarthy, Seaver Wang
7–12 of 23
Who to talk to
Seaver Wang
Director, Climate and Energy Email
Latest: Does Congress Even Have a Critical Minerals Strategy?
Ryan Alimento
Climate and Energy Analyst Email
Latest: Factors for Successful Critical Mineral Beneficiation
Questions
What are critical minerals?
Critical minerals are minerals that are essential to the economy, national security, and modern technologies but face potential supply-chain risks.
Why are critical minerals important?
Critical minerals are used in everything from electricity grids and nuclear reactors to batteries, electronics, vehicles, industrial metals, and defense technologies. Reliable access to these materials is essential for energy security, economic growth, and national security—and for building the technologies and infrastructure needed for a more prosperous, lower-carbon future.
Does China control the world's critical minerals?
China dominates the market for many critical mineral supply chains and often across multiple supply chain steps, especially processing and refining. For example, China controls 95% of the global magnesium metal supply—a key input for widely-used aluminum alloys, steelmaking, and titanium refining. China also produces 90% of the world’s battery graphite material, 80% of the world’s battery cells, and around 93% of rare earth permanent magnet manufacturing.
Does the US have its own critical minerals?
The United States contains significant deposits of many critical minerals, including lithium, copper, and rare earth elements. But overall, domestic mining—and especially processing and refining capacity—remains limited for many minerals.