Figure 1: Strategic Defense Critical Minerals: Chinese Export Controls and Bans

These twelve critical minerals are those with which the United States faces an acute exposure risk from China and other foreign entities of concern (FEOC) and that are essential to national security, especially for semiconductors, defense, and high-tech industries.

1. Stage of the production process for which FEOCs account for the largest share

2. On November 9, 2025, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) issued Announcement 72 of 2025, which suspended the second paragraph of MOC Announcement 46 of 2024, issued December 3, 2024, that prohibited exports to the United States of dual-use items related to gallium, germanium, antimony, and superhard materials and imposed stricter end-user and end-use reviews for graphite exports.

3. On November 7, 2025, the Chinese MOC issued announcement 70 of 2025, which suspended MOC Announcements 55-58, 61, and 62 of 2025, issued October 9, 2025, that expanded export controls on Chinese rare earth production, processing equipment, and foreign uses of Chinese-origin materials.
Source: Silverado Policy Accelerator analysis of data from the U.S. Geological Survey, USITC DataWeb, Global Trade Tracker, S&P Global, Project Blue, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Import Genius, British Geological Survey, European Commission Raw Materials Information System, Mining.com, and other publicly available sources