Critical Minerals Factbook
Policy actions

Rare-earths policy timeline

Dated actions preserve announced, scheduled, effective, amended, and rescinded distinctions.

Jan 14, 2026 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

Section 232 Action on Processed Critical Minerals and Derivative Products (EO 14272 and Proclamation 11001)

Amended actual

EO 14272 (Apr. 15, 2025) ordered a Section 232 national security investigation into imports of processed critical minerals, expressly including rare earth elements, and their derivative products such as permanent magnets. Commerce's report (transmitted Oct. 24, 2025) found the imports threaten to impair national security, and Proclamation 11001 (Jan. 14, 2026) concurred, directing Commerce and USTR to negotiate agreements, with price floors to be considered, rather than imposing immediate tariffs.

Sources

Nov 7, 2025 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

China export controls on seven medium/heavy rare earths and related magnet items (April 2025, as amended)

Amended actual

MOFCOM/GAC Announcement No. 18 of 4 April 2025 imposed export licensing on samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium and their metals, alloys, oxides, compounds, mixtures, and permanent-magnet materials — the pivotal chokepoint event for the rare earths-to-magnets chain, since these elements dominate heat-resistant NdFeB and SmCo magnet supply. The October 2025 expansion (extraterritorial 0.1% content rule and technology controls) was suspended for one year in November 2025, but the April controls themselves remained in force and actively enforced through mid-2026.

Sources

Nov 7, 2025 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

USGS/Interior Critical Minerals List — 2018, 2022, and 2025 Revisions

Amended actual

The Department of the Interior's critical minerals list, first published in 2018 pursuant to EO 13817 (35 commodities including the rare earth elements group), was revised in 2022 (50 minerals, with rare earths listed as individual elements) and again in the final 2025 list (60 minerals). Listing keeps rare earth elements eligible for the statutory and program preferences that key off the list, from permitting priorities to Section 232 scoping, which defined critical minerals by reference to the USGS list.

Sources

Nov 1, 2025 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

US-China trade frameworks touching rare earth export licensing (2025-2026)

Announced actual

Series of US-China de-escalation frameworks — Geneva (May 2025), London (June 2025), and the Busan meeting deal announced 1 November 2025 — in which restored rare earth and magnet export flows were a central US objective. The two governments' accounts of what China committed to on rare earth licensing diverge materially, and reporting through mid-2026 describes only partial relief, so this record keeps each event tied to what its source states.

Sources

Apr 8, 2025 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

Executive Order 14241 — Immediate Measures To Increase American Mineral Production

Amended actual

EO 14241 (Mar. 20, 2025) ordered fast-tracked permitting for priority mineral projects, federal land prioritization for mineral production, and new financing channels, and delegated DPA section 303 authority to the Secretary of Defense and DPA Title III authorities to the DFC for domestic mineral production. Its definitions expressly cover processing through metals and master alloys and derivative products such as permanent magnets, putting the rare earths-to-magnets chain squarely in scope.

Sources

Jan 1, 2027 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

10 U.S.C. 4872 — DoD Restrictions on Chinese-Sourced NdFeB and SmCo Magnets (FY2019 NDAA sec. 871 through FY2024 NDAA sec. 854)

Effective future scheduled effective date

Section 871 of the FY2019 NDAA (10 U.S.C. 2533c, now 4872) barred DoD acquisition of samarium-cobalt and neodymium-iron-boron magnets (and tungsten) melted or produced in North Korea, China, Russia, or Iran. Section 844 of the FY2021 NDAA expanded the bar to material 'mined, refined, separated, melted, or produced' in those countries, and section 854 of the FY2024 NDAA set that full mine-to-magnet restriction to take effect January 1, 2027, making DoD demand a forcing function for a non-Chinese rare earth magnet supply chain.

Sources

May 23, 2024 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

EU Critical Raw Materials Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1252)

Effective actual

EU framework regulation for secure and sustainable critical raw materials supply, in force 23 May 2024. Its 2030 benchmarks (10% extraction, 40% processing, 25% recycling, no more than 65% of any strategic raw material from a single third country) and fast-permitting Strategic Projects mechanism are the EU's principal policy lever for building an ex-China rare earth magnet chain, and the first strategic-projects list recognises five rare earth facilities tracked in this database.

Sources

Dec 21, 2023 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

China export ban on rare earth extraction, separation, and magnet-making technology (December 2023)

Announced actual

On 21 December 2023 China's Ministry of Commerce revised its Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export to ban export of rare earth extraction and separation technology, rare earth metal and alloy production technology, and technology for making some rare earth magnets. The ban locks in China's roughly 90% share of global separation capacity by blocking transfer of the process know-how that ex-China separation and magnet projects would otherwise buy.

Sources

Jun 14, 2022 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

Minerals Security Partnership (MSP)

Announced actual

Multilateral partnership announced by the US State Department and partner governments in June 2022 to catalyze government and private investment in critical mineral supply chains. It is the main allied-coordination vehicle for ex-China rare earth projects: by the September 2024 principals' meeting, 10 of the 32 MSP-endorsed projects involved rare earth elements.

Sources

Feb 24, 2021 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

Executive Order 14017 — America's Supply Chains (100-Day Reviews)

Announced actual

EO 14017 (Feb. 24, 2021) ordered 100-day supply chain risk reviews, including a report by the Secretary of Defense, as National Defense Stockpile Manager, on critical minerals and other strategic materials explicitly including rare earth elements. The resulting June 2021 review track shaped the federal framing of the rare earths-to-magnets chokepoints and follow-on DoD and DOE actions.

Sources

Sep 30, 2020 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

Executive Order 13817 — A Federal Strategy To Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals

Amended actual

EO 13817 (Dec. 20, 2017) made it federal policy to reduce U.S. vulnerability to critical-mineral supply disruptions and directed the Secretary of the Interior to identify critical minerals, producing the 2018 list on which rare earth elements appear. It is the root instrument of the modern U.S. critical-minerals policy chain that runs through the USGS lists, EO 13953, and later rare-earth supply chain actions.

Sources

Sep 30, 2020 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

Executive Order 13953 — National Emergency on Reliance on Critical Minerals From Foreign Adversaries

Announced actual

EO 13953 (Sept. 30, 2020) declared a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act and IEEPA over U.S. reliance on critical minerals from foreign adversaries, citing the fact that the United States imported 80 percent of its rare earth elements directly from China as its lead example. It directed agencies to prioritize secure critical-mineral supply chains, ordered consideration of a grants program for domestic mineral processing equipment, and amended EO 13817 to require periodic list updates.

Sources

Jul 22, 2019 · freshness floor Aug 11, 2026

Presidential Determinations 2019-16 through 2019-20 — DPA Title III Rare Earth Production Capability

Announced actual

Five Presidential Determinations signed July 22, 2019 under section 303(a)(5) of the Defense Production Act (50 U.S.C. 4533) found that domestic production capability for heavy and light rare earth separation and processing, rare earth metals and alloys, NdFeB sintered material and permanent magnets, and SmCo permanent magnets is essential to the national defense. They unlocked DPA Title III purchases and purchase commitments across every stage of the rare earths-to-magnets chain and underpin subsequent DoD Title III awards to separation, metal, and magnet projects.

Sources