What Are Critical Minerals?

Critical minerals are minerals that a government judges essential to its economy or national security and whose supply is vulnerable to disruption. There is no single international list. The United States lists 60 minerals (November 2025), the European Union lists 34 critical raw materials of which 17 are also strategic, Canada lists 34 and Australia lists 31 critical minerals plus a separate list of five strategic materials. Lithium, cobalt, graphite and rare earths appear on most of them.

How do the four main governments define critical minerals?

Each government uses its own test, and the tests differ in how quantitative they are. The US test is a three-part judgement set in law, the EU test uses numerical thresholds, and the Canadian and Australian lists are published by their resource departments.

Why do the lists disagree?

The lists disagree because the countries have different economies, import dependencies and purposes for the list. The same mineral can be critical in one jurisdiction, strategic in another and absent from a third. The table shows six examples from this site's comparison data.

Which minerals are usually on the lists?

Minerals tied to batteries, magnets, semiconductors and defense appear on most lists. Lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, manganese, rare earth elements, gallium, germanium, tungsten and the platinum group metals are covered by several of the four lists, and you can see each one's status on its mineral profile. The US Geological Survey data for 2025 shows why: China produced 99% of primary low-purity gallium and an estimated 82% of natural graphite, the Democratic Republic of the Congo mined an estimated 73% of the world's cobalt, and Indonesia mined about two thirds of its nickel.

Why have critical minerals become a policy priority?

Critical minerals have become a priority because supply is concentrated in few countries and stages, and some of those countries have used export controls. The International Energy Agency's 2026 outlook says the top refiners accounted for over three quarters of the growth in refined supply over the previous two years, that investment fell 9% in 2025 and that public financial commitments to projects more than quadrupled between 2023 and 2025, reaching $65 billion. The agency's framing is that concern has shifted from whether supply can meet demand to the vulnerability of concentrated supply chains. The pages on processing dominance and resource nationalism cover the causes.

Frequently asked questions

What are critical minerals?

Critical minerals are minerals that governments judge essential to economic or national security and whose supply is vulnerable to disruption. Each government publishes its own list, so the set of critical minerals differs between the United States, the European Union, Canada and Australia.

How many critical minerals are there?

The number of critical minerals depends on the list. The United States lists 60 minerals, the European Union 34 critical raw materials, Canada 34 minerals and Australia 31 critical minerals, according to their latest official lists.

What is the difference between critical and strategic minerals?

Critical minerals are defined by economic importance and supply risk, while strategic minerals are defined by their role in defense, security and emergency needs. In the EU, strategic raw materials are a subset of the critical list, and in the US the stockpile law defines strategic and critical materials separately.

Is copper a critical mineral?

Copper is a critical mineral on the US list from November 2025, a strategic and critical raw material in the EU, a priority mineral in Canada and a strategic material, not a critical mineral, in Australia.

Sources

Read on October 12, 2026. Figures on this page come from these documents; where a number is an estimate, the source says so.

1. USGS: Interior Department releases final 2025 list of critical minerals
2. 30 U.S.C. 1606: Critical mineral designation
3. Regulation (EU) 2024/1252, Official Journal L, 3 May 2024
4. Natural Resources Canada: Updated Critical Minerals List (June 2024)
5. Department of Industry, Science and Resources: Critical Minerals List and Strategic Materials List
6. USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026
7. Global Mining Review: report on the IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026