Highlights

• The 2025 USGS Critical Minerals List expands to 60 minerals, up from 50 in 2022.
• New additions include uranium, metallurgical coal, boron, and phosphate, identified as strategic priorities driven by executive orders and national security imperatives.
• A new economic impact model simulates over 1,200 global trade disruption scenarios.
• High-risk minerals identified include rhodium, gallium, germanium, tungsten, and heavy rare earths, which face concentrated Chinese processing control.
• The update signals America's pivot from awareness to action by prioritizing:
  • Domestic exploration
  • Processing capacity
  • Recycling infrastructure
• The goal is to achieve resource independence and industrial resilience.

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The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) newly published 2025 List of Critical Minerals marks a turning point in the nation’s resource strategy. The updated list—now featuring 60 minerals, up from 50 in 2022—signals an expanded recognition of how deeply supply chain security, national defense, and clean energy ambitions are intertwined.

Among the headline additions are metallurgical coal and uranium, reintroduced via recent executive orders linking steelmaking and nuclear energy to economic and national security imperatives. The Energy Act of 2020 mandates this triennial update, but the 2025 edition arrives amid unprecedented geopolitical tension, making it one of the most consequential lists since the program began.

A Smarter, Sharper Risk Model

USGS used a new economic impact model that simulates more than 1,200 global trade disruption scenarios across 400 industries. The goal: quantify the ripple effects of mineral shocks on the U.S. economy. The model’s risk weighting now allows policymakers to compare mineral-supply threats directly against other macroeconomic risks, providing a more transparent, data-driven foundation for federal investment decisions. In practical terms, minerals with “elevated” or “high” disruption risk—such as rhodium, gallium, germanium, tungsten, niobium, magnesium metal, potash, and several rare earth elements—will likely see accelerated exploration, recycling, and stockpiling efforts.

The Newcomers and the Strategic Shifts

The 10 additions reveal both policy shifts and industrial realities. Beyond uranium and metallurgical coal, boron and phosphate make the cut—boron for its growing role in defense and clean-tech applications, phosphate for its agricultural importance and import reliance.

Meanwhile, arsenic and tellurium remain listed despite lower measured vulnerability, a sign of the government’s cautious approach amid volatile markets. This cycle also strengthens the role of rare earth elements, with heavy REEs such as lutetium, samarium, terbium, dysprosium, gadolinium, and yttrium flagged as particularly high-risk due to concentrated Chinese processing control.

From Mapping to Mobilization

The 2025 update dovetails with USGS’s Earth MRI (Mapping Resources Initiative), which is modernizing U.S. geological data to locate new domestic deposits. While many of the listed minerals exist in American geology, economic and permitting barriers remain the bottleneck.

The report’s nuance is clear: the minerals are here—but without processing capacity and investment, the U.S. remains exposed. That gap will shape the next wave of industrial policy, from Department of Defense procurement to DOE loan guarantees for refining and recycling projects.

Why It Matters

For investors and industry alike, the 2025 List formalizes what markets already sensed: critical minerals are the new strategic currency. As the world races toward electrification, this expanded U.S. framework underscores the transition from awareness to action—moving beyond lists toward long-term industrial resilience.

Summary

The 2025 USGS Critical Minerals List expands to 60 minerals, incorporating new risk modeling and executive directives that recognize uranium, metallurgical coal, boron, and phosphate as vital to U.S. security and supply chains. The update solidifies the federal focus on domestic sourcing, processing, and recycling of high-risk minerals such as rare earths, gallium, and tungsten—cementing America’s pivot toward resource independence.

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