By-product recovery from US metal mines could reduce import reliance for critical minerals.

The United States (US) has sufficient geological endowment in active metal mines to reduce the nation's dependence on critical mineral imports. Demand is increasing for cobalt, nickel, rare earth elements, tellurium, germanium, and other materials used in energy production, semiconductors, and defense. This study uses a statistical evaluation of new geochemical datasets to quantify the critical minerals that are mined annually in US ores but go unrecovered. Ninety percent recovery of by-products from existing domestic metal mining operations could meet nearly all US critical mineral needs; one percent recovery would substantially reduce import reliance for most elements that we evaluated. Policies and technological advancements can enable by-product recovery, which is a resource-efficient approach to critical mineral supply that reduces waste, impact, and geopolitical risk. Editor's summary: US agencies recently named more than 50 elements, minerals, and materials as being critical to energy production, the economy, and national security. Concerns about supply chain exposure have driven US policies that encourage new domestic mines, production from which would require several decades on average. Investigating a more efficient approach, Holley et al. inventoried the potential endowment of unrecovered critical minerals in active US mines compared with imports. Their assessment suggests that 90% recovery of existing by-products could meet nearly all domestic demand for critical minerals—and even 1% recovery would substantially reduce reliance on imports. —Angela Hessler [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]