Critical Minerals vs Strategic Minerals: What's the Difference?
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There is no single difference between critical and strategic minerals, because each government defines the two terms its own way. In the EU every strategic raw material is also critical. In Australia strategic materials are a separate list for materials whose supply chains are not vulnerable enough to be critical. In the United States "critical mineral" (Interior Department, Energy Act of 2020) and "strategic and critical materials" (stockpile law) are two separate legal terms. Canada has a single list and uses "strategic" only as one of its tests.
17 of 34
EU critical raw materials that are also strategic raw materials
Source: Regulation (EU) 2024/1252
5
Australian strategic materials that sit outside the Critical Minerals List
2
separate U.S. statutory terms: critical mineral, and strategic and critical materials
How does each jurisdiction define the two terms?
The table sets the definitions side by side. The right-hand column is the practical answer to the question in the title.
| Jurisdiction | Critical | Strategic | How they relate |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | A mineral the Secretary of the Interior designates as essential to economic or national security, with a supply chain vulnerable to disruption and an essential function in manufacturing (30 U.S.C. 1606). Fuel minerals are excluded by definition. | Strategic and critical materials: those needed to supply the military, industrial and essential civilian needs of the U.S. in a national emergency that are not found or produced in sufficient quantities at home (50 U.S.C. 98h-3). Used for the National Defense Stockpile. | Two statutes with different tests and different lists. The Secretary may also designate a mineral that another agency finds strategic and critical to defense. |
| European Union | Supply risk of at least 1 and economic importance of at least 2.8, or any strategic raw material (Article 4). | Chosen on strategic importance for the green and digital transitions, defense and aerospace, forecast demand growth and difficulty of increasing production (Article 3, Annex I). | Strategic is a subset: all 17 strategic raw materials are on the list of 34 critical ones. Only strategic ones count towards the 2030 benchmarks. |
| Australia | Essential to priority technologies, geological potential in Australia, demand from partners and a vulnerable supply chain. | Meets the same tests except that supply chains are not currently vulnerable enough. | Mutually exclusive. Strategic materials are not eligible for the production tax incentive. |
| Canada | A threatened supply chain and a reasonable chance of Canadian production, plus one further test. | No strategic list. One of the further tests is positioning Canada as a sustainable and strategic partner in global supply chains. | One list of 34 minerals, six of them priorities. |
Sources: 30 U.S.C. 1606, 50 U.S.C. 98h-3, Regulation (EU) 2024/1252, Australian lists, Canadian list and the Australian tax incentive page.
Which minerals are strategic in the EU and in Australia?
The EU's 17 strategic raw materials are bauxite, alumina and aluminium; bismuth; boron (metallurgy grade); cobalt; copper; gallium; germanium; lithium (battery grade); magnesium metal; manganese (battery grade); graphite (battery grade); nickel (battery grade); platinum group metals; rare earth elements for permanent magnets (neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, dysprosium, gadolinium, samarium and cerium); silicon metal; titanium metal; and tungsten. Australia's five strategic materials are aluminium, copper, phosphorus, tin and zinc. The overlap is aluminium and copper, which both the EU and Australia treat as strategic, although the EU also keeps them on its critical list. See the comparison table.
Why does the distinction matter in practice?
The label decides which programs apply. In the EU, only strategic raw materials count towards the 2030 benchmarks for extraction, processing, recycling and import diversification. In Australia, a strategic label excludes a material from the 10% processing tax offset. In the United States, a mineral on the Interior list is not automatically in the stockpile, and a mineral can be added to the Interior list on defense grounds even where the economic model did not recommend it: the 2025 list kept arsenic and tellurium that way. Our page on what strategic minerals are covers the U.S. stockpile term in more depth.
Frequently asked questions
Are critical minerals and strategic minerals the same thing?
No. The terms are defined separately in each jurisdiction. In the EU every strategic raw material is also critical, in Australia strategic materials are a separate list, and in the U.S. critical minerals and strategic and critical materials are different legal terms.
Is copper a critical or a strategic mineral?
It depends on the list. Copper is critical in the United States since November 2025, a strategic raw material in the EU, a priority mineral in Canada and a strategic material in Australia. The EU includes it on the critical list because strategic raw materials are automatically critical.
Are rare earths critical or strategic?
Rare earths are critical in all four jurisdictions. The EU also classes the rare earths used in permanent magnets as strategic, and Canada lists rare earth elements among its six priority minerals. See the page on critical minerals versus rare earths for the scope difference.
Does the United States have a list of strategic minerals?
The U.S. stockpile law defines strategic and critical materials by what the military, industry and essential civilian needs would require in a national emergency. The Interior Department's list of 60 critical minerals is a separate designation under the Energy Act of 2020.
Sources
Read on October 12, 2026. Figures on this page come from these documents; where a number is an estimate, the source says so.
- 30 U.S.C. 1606 (Energy Act of 2020, section 7002)
- 50 U.S.C. 98h-3 (definitions for the National Defense Stockpile)
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1252, Articles 3 and 4 and Annexes I and II
- Department of Industry, Science and Resources: Australia's Critical Minerals List and Strategic Materials List
- Government of Canada: Canada's critical minerals
- Department of Industry, Science and Resources: Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive
