USGS finalizes 2025 list: 60 critical minerals
Copper and silver are officially critical now. The US list grew to 60 minerals, its broadest yet.
What happened
The Interior Department, through USGS, finalized its 2025 List of Critical Minerals with 60 entries. Ten were added: boron, copper, lead, metallurgical coal, phosphate, potash, rhenium, silicon, silver and uranium.
This is the third list under the 2017 executive order on mineral security, and the law requires it to be reviewed at least every three years.
Our take
Adding copper is the big shift. For years it was treated as a commodity that markets would handle; now it's formally a security concern, which opens the door to federal support for copper mining and smelting.
Including potash and phosphate signals that food security is now part of the mineral-security conversation, while silicon and silver reflect their roles in chips and solar. The list is less a ranking of scarcity than a map of what the US economy can't afford to lose.
Why it matters for AI infrastructure
Copper and silicon are foundational to AI: one wires the grid and data center, the other is the chip itself. Their critical status makes AI-related supply chains eligible for the policy tools reserved for critical minerals.
What we're watching
- The next scheduled review of the list
- Federal financing for copper projects now that it's listed
- How other countries' lists respond to the US additions