The Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office's (AMMTO) Critical Minerals and Materials portfolio addresses high-impact opportunities and challenges across the entire life cycle of high priority critical minerals and materials for energy technologies.
What Are Critical Minerals and Materials?
The United States lacks a strong domestic supply of many minerals and materials that will be critical to a secure energy infrastructure as well as current manufacturing technologies. These include:
- Rare earth elements, used in electric vehicle motors;
- Lithium, cobalt, and high-purity nickel, used in energy storage technologies;
- Platinum group metals used in catalysts for automotive, chemical, fuel cell, and hydrogen products; and
- Gallium and germanium used in semiconductors.
Strategy
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) critical minerals & materials strategy is based on the following pillars:
- Diversifying supplies of critical minerals and materials.
- Developing alternatives to critical minerals and materials.
- Improving materials and manufacturing efficiency.
- Investing in recycling and reuse approaches.
DOE supports these strategy pillars by enabling activities, cross-cutting functions to enable and enhance research, development, demonstration, and deployment efforts across four areas:
- Analysis & advanced tools
- Market assessment & development
- International engagement & standards
- Education & workforce development.
Activities
Reports & Resources
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This offers the definitions and current list of critical materials and critical minerals. -
The DOE Critical Minerals & Materials Program coordinates RD&D into strategic resources across DOE. -
The Lithium Research, Development, and Demonstration (RD&D) Virtual Center, also known as the Lithium Center, is a United States Government-led center for promoting cooperation on lithium supply chain related topics across the United States.
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This report evaluates the state of the United States critical materials rare earths supply chain and identifies the many challenges and opportunities the industry faces.
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Learn more about the 10 years of innovation, influence, and impact from the CMI Hub.
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Key takeaways discussed included technology validation; resource diversification; and increased supply chain connectivity.
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This criticality assessment provides an update to previous DOE criticality reports based on recent market and technological developments and shifts in national and global priorities.
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