What are Critical Minerals and Materials?

The Department of Energy (DOE) Critical Minerals and Materials (CMM) Program aims to rebuild U.S. leadership in extraction and processing technologies to produce critical minerals and critical materials that include rare earth elements,¹ critical minerals (originally defined by the U.S. Geological Survey [USGS]) and materials deemed critical by DOE.

The Energy Act of 2020 defines a “critical material” as

Any non-fuel mineral, element, substance, or material that the Secretary of Energy determines: (i) has a high risk of supply chain disruption; and (ii) serves an essential function in one or more energy technologies, including technologies that produce, transmit, store, and conserve energy; or
A critical mineral, as defined by the Secretary of the Interior.

This statutory definition is consistent with DOE’s long-standing methodology to assess material criticality based on importance to energy applications and potential for supply risk and illustrated in Figure 1.

The Energy Act of 2020 defines a “critical mineral” as

Any mineral, element, substance, or material designated as critical by the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the director of the USGS.

Figure 1. Mineral Criticality Based on Potential Impact and Supply Risk

Pursuant to the authority under Section 7002(a) of the Energy Act of 2020, the Secretary of Energy, acting through the Undersecretary for Science and Innovation, determined the 2023 DOE Critical Materials List. This list includes critical materials for energy as well as those critical minerals on the 2022 final list published by the Secretary of Interior, acting through the director of the USGS:

Critical materials for energy: aluminum, cobalt, copper, dysprosium, electrical steel, fluorine, gallium, iridium, lithium, magnesium, natural graphite, neodymium, nickel, platinum, praseodymium, silicon, silicon carbide and terbium (known as “the electric eighteen”).
Critical minerals: 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.

The 2023 DOE Critical Materials List is based on the assessment described in DOE's 2023 “Critical Materials Assessment.” The results of the assessment are shown in the criticality matrices shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

The final 2023 DOE Critical Materials List includes all materials that were assessed as “critical” or “near critical” in either the short or medium term—with the exception of uranium. Section 7002(a) of the Energy Act of 2020 restricts the listing of critical materials to “any non-fuel mineral, element, substance, or material.” Based on the plain meaning of fuel, uranium used in commercial nuclear reactors is a fuel material. As DOE’s 2023 “Critical Materials Assessment” includes only use of uranium as a fuel, DOE did not designate uranium as a critical material in the final 2023 DOE Critical Materials List.

DOE’s 2023 “Critical Materials Assessment” analysis identifies seven materials—dysprosium, neodymium, gallium, graphite, cobalt, terbium, and iridium—as critical in the short term (2020–2025; see Figure 1). These materials are used in various applications such as magnets, batteries, LEDs, hydrogen electrolyzers, fuel cells, and power electronics. Additionally, lithium, uranium, electrical steel, nickel, magnesium, silicon carbide, fluorine, praseodymium, and platinum are classified as near critical in the short term. Over the medium term (2025–2035; see Figure 2), the importance and supply risk scores for certain materials shift. Specifically, nickel, platinum, magnesium, silicon carbide, and praseodymium become critical, primarily due to their use in batteries and vehicle lightweighting. Aluminum, copper, and silicon become near critical in the medium term due to increased demand in solar energy technologies, global electrification, and vehicle lightweighting.

Figure 2. Short-term (2020–2025) criticality matrix

A matrix chart for the short term showing different minerals, assigned as "critical,” “near critical," and "not critical" classes. The X axis shows supply risk, from low to high, and the Y axis shows importance to energy, from low to high.

Figure 3. Medium-term (2025–2035) criticality matrix

A matrix chart for the medium term showing different minerals, assigned as "critical,” “near critical," and "not critical" classes. The X axis shows supply risk, from low to high, and the Y axis shows importance to energy, from low to high.

Additional information on critical minerals and materials is available at:

¹ Rare earth elements: (lanthanide series) lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, (promethium,) samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium. Scandium and yttrium are often also included. https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/rare-earths-statistics-and-information