Minerals are essential to manufacturing components for everything from electric vehicles, smartphones, medical screening to weapons systems used by the military.
But the United States remains heavily dependent on foreign sources for many of its critical minerals. About 91 percent of the rare earth element needed to make night-vision goggles for the military, for example, is imported from China.
In 2017, President Trump issued an executive order to address these vulnerabilities, tasking the Interior Department with developing a list of critical minerals and the Commerce Department with devising a strategy — including action plans, goals, and recommendations — to secure vital supply chains here in the United States.
