Full Title: Resilient Resource Reserve: A Plan to Catalyze the American Critical Mineral Processing Industry
Author(s): John Jacobs
Publisher(s): Bipartisan Policy Center
Publication Date: July 1, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The critical mineral supply chains of 2024 are fragile, volatile, and threaten both American national security and the energy transition. While sources of raw ores containing critical minerals are distributed globally, the processing phase that transforms these ores into purified forms of the critical minerals required by modern technologies is highly geographically concentrated, with few exceptions. China dominates this crucial segment, hosting 57% of lithium, 77% of cobalt, 92% of rare earth elements, and 91% of natural graphite processing capacities within its borders. Beyond domestic projects, China further solidifies its market concentration by investing in projects abroad. This concentration is expected to grow as Chinese companies doubled their investments in the critical mineral sector in 2022. Consequently, the United States depends on China as the primary supplier of 24 of the 50 critical minerals listed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Risks created by the increasing monopolization of the mineral processing sector are compounded by China’s demonstrated willingness to leverage its market power and manipulate prices—most recently through export restrictions on gallium, germanium, graphite, and the technologies used to process many critical minerals including rare earth elements.