According to Mining.com, the United States has added copper and silver to the list of critical minerals essential to the U.S. economy and national security.

This inventory, compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), adds 10 minerals to the 2022 version, bringing the total to 60. Other major new additions include coking coal, uranium, potash, rhenium, silicon, and lead. The addition of copper and silver confirms the USGS previously submitted inventory (draft).

The 60 critical minerals include:

1. Energy minerals, 2

Coking coal, uranium

2. Metal minerals, 49

(1) Black metals (manganese, chromium, iron, titanium)

(2) Industrial metals (copper, lead, zinc, aluminum, nickel, cobalt, tungsten, tin, bismuth, fluorite, magnesium)

(3) Precious metals (silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium)

(4) Rare earths (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, eurosodymium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, lutetium, scandium, yttrium)

(5) Scattered metal (germanium, gallium, indium, rhenium)

(6) Semi-metals (tellurium, arsenic, boron, silicon)

3. Non-metals, 5

Phosphates, potash, barite, fluorite, graphite

4. USGS states that the agency estimated the potential impacts of disruptions to mineral imports using its economic models, on which this inventory is based.

This assessment covered 84 minerals, involving 402 industries and 1,200 scenarios. USGS said this provided policymakers with a more realistic and applicable basis.

The critical minerals inventory is the basis for the Trump administration's Section 232 investigation into potential tariffs and trade controls, as was the case with the recent investigation into copper earlier this year.

The catalog will also provide information and references for mining investment, waste resource recycling, reserves, mineral processing tax incentives, and the simplification of mine licensing procedures.

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