The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released the final catalog of 50 key minerals that are of great importance to the economy and national security. Titanium, zirconium, and hafnium are among them. On the day of the release of the list, the Biden government issued a statement saying: "key minerals provide the basis for many modern technologies and are crucial to national security and economic prosperity." Key minerals play an important role in China's national security, economy, renewable energy development, and infrastructure construction," said Tanya Trujillo, Deputy Secretary for water and scientific research at the U.S. Department of the interior. "After data collection and analysis, USGS has explored the emerging problems in the key supply chain and evaluated the risks caused by the possible interruption of national mineral product supply every three years."
The new catalog is prepared in accordance with the requirements of the 2020 energy act, which states that the Ministry of the interior must evaluate and update the catalog of key minerals at least every three years. USGS is also responsible for improving the method of identifying potential key minerals, providing inter-agency feedback and soliciting public opinions through the Federal Register, and finally forming a key mineral catalog.
USGS said that the directory will be updated dynamically, not unchanged. "The crisis of minerals changes over time and is not static," Steven Fortier, director of USGS national mineral information center, said at a media conference.
"The 2022 key minerals catalog was created using the latest available data on nonfuel minerals. However, we have been analyzing the mineral market and exploring new methods to judge the complexity and variability of key mineral supply chain risks ". USGS said that the new catalog of key minerals will serve as the basis for the evaluation of key mineral potential in the United States.
