Actions Needed To Promote a Stable Supply of Strategic and Critical Minerals and Materials

The National Materials and Minerals Policy and Development Act of 1980 was enacted to provide a national policy for minerals and materials and to strengthen related research and production capabilities. The Executive Office of the President is implementing this policy primarily through the Cabinet Council on Natural Resources and the Environment. GAO reviewed the strides that have been made in developing legislative, budgetary, and programmatic proposals to promote an adequate and stable supply of minerals and materials needed to maintain national security, economic well-being, and industrial production as required by the Act.

The Act gives high priority to the issue of strategic and critical and minerals and materials. However, the President's program plan, while identifying measures to diminish U.S. minerals and materials vulnerability, does not adequately address the fundamental, rudimentary issues of: (1) what constitutes a strategic and critical mineral or material; (2) what the magnitude of potential U.S. vulnerability in a given nonfuel mineral and material market; and (3) what the proper Federal role. Unless these issues are resolved, a coherent plan to reduce U.S. mineral and materials vulnerability may be difficult to implement, and the limited Federal funds available may not be expended in the most cost-effective manner. The President's plan addresses general solutions for reducing increasing U.S. dependency on foreign sources for strategic and critical minerals and materials, including: (1) long-term, high-risk research and development with potential wide generic application to materials problems and increased productivity; (2) strategic and critical minerals impact analyses on proposed future congressional land withdrawals; and (3) congressional approval to dispose of excess materials in the National Defense Stockpile and to acquire stockpile materials. A growing consensus of opinion is that assuring U.S. access to future strategic and critical mineral and material supplies will require a long-term plan that is tailored for a specific mineral or material and that considers its extraction, processing, and consumption system.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: John W. Sprague Team: General Accounting Office: Energy and Minerals Division Phone: (202) 512-7783