by SilverWars, Silver Seek:
SilverWars’ research team indicates that silver is a Critical Raw Material that is needed for every nation’s security, current energy infrastructure and towards ensuring the global green-energy transformation. By all respects, except by a lack of current official classification, silver is the most critical resource on our planet for the foreseeable future. The severity of the silver supply deficit is estimated to be the ‘SHOWSTOPPER‘.
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KATIE SWEENEY – National Mining Association – Oct 4 2021 – Senate Hearing on the 1872 Mining Law
“…we have become excessively over reliant on foreign sources of minerals over the years. I mean, when the Energy Information Agency can’t even provide the actual amount produced in the United States last year because its proprietary information, cause there is so few producers, that’s kind of a sad state of affairs, but it is one example of many of how we’ve become incredibly reliant on foreign sources of minerals, even for workhorse minerals like silver and copper that are used in solar, and in electric vehicles, and every aspect of modern life. We’re importing 80% of the silver.”
– Katie Sweeney, National Mining Association, 2021.
Section 343 of the FY19 HASC NDAA Committee Report expressed a “Sense of Congress” that aggregates, copper, molybdenum, gold, zinc, nickel, lead, silver, and certain fertilizer compounds should be added to the critical materials list under Executive Order 13817.
Section 2 of the order defines a “critical mineral” as a mineral identified by the Secretary of the Interior, to be a non-fuel mineral or mineral material essential to the economic and national security of the United States, the supply chain of which is vulnerable to disruption, and that serves an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for our economy or our national security.
The executive order is a non-binding statement of intent and not a legal mandate. To determine whether this specific recommendation was enacted or if it remains in effect, we examined subsequent legislative actions and looked for updates to the critical materials list as governed by Executive Order 13817 and or related policies.
The most recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published a final list of 50 critical materials in February 2022. This list includes several minerals mentioned in Section 342 of the FY19 HASC NDAA Committee Report, such as:
a. Copper
b. Molybdenum
c. Nickel
d. Zinc
e. SILVER
f. Gold
g. Lead
Aggregates and certain fertilizer compounds are not included in the 2022 critical minerals list.
In 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Critical Mineral Consistency Act with bipartisan support. The legislation aims to standardize the process for designating critical minerals, potentially influencing future updates to the critical minerals list.
As of December 2024, the 2022 list remains the most current official list of critical minerals. While legislative efforts continue to refine and update the criteria and designations, the specific recommendations from Section 342 of the FY19 HASC NDAA Committee Report has been partially addressed, with several of the mentioned minerals now recognized as critical.
