Lawmakers are mulling a slew of new authorities and reporting requirements designed to shore up the U.S. supply chain of critical minerals as tensions with China deepen.
House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2024 defense authorization put a new layer of pressure on the Pentagon to secure its access to materials used in a wide variety of weapons — provisions pushed by both Democrats and Republicans.
China currently controls most of the market for materials known as critical minerals, including cobalt, lithium, nickel and “rare earth elements,” a subgroup of critical minerals that come from a smaller number of sources. Although these minerals are found around the world, China dominates the market for processing and refining them.
