Today, President Trump signed an executive order intended to increase US-based mining, refining, and production of critical minerals and “derivative products”. The executive order calls on federal agencies prioritize permitting, financing, land availability, and regulatory approvals for such projects.
Critical minerals subject to the executive order include uranium, copper, potash, gold as well as aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, cerium, cesium, chromium, cobalt, dysprosium, erbium, europium, fluorspar, gadolinium, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, holmium, indium, iridium, lanthanum, lithium, lutetium, magnesium, manganese, neodymium, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, praseodymium, rhodium, rubidium, ruthenium, samarium, scandium, tantalum, tellurium, terbium, thulium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, ytterbium, yttrium, zinc, and zirconium.
Derivative products subject to the executive order include semiconductor wafers, anodes, cathodes, magnets, motors, electric vehicles, batteries, smartphones, microprocessors, radar systems, wind turbines and advanced optical devices.