U.S. and Canada ramp up critical mineral production to reduce reliance on China. North America’s top critical mineral sites include MP Materials’ Mountain Pass rare earth mine, Albemarle’s Silver Peak lithium brine operation, Teck’s Red Dog zinc mine, Freeport’s massive Morenci copper mine, and Northern Graphite’s Lac des Îles—Canada’s only graphite mine. China’s dominance persists but faces growing Western pushback, with the U.S. and allies investing heavily in local mining, processing, and supply chains.

For decades, China has dominated critical minerals, with Canada and the US, among other nations, all too willing to let Beijing do the mining and/ or processing and sell the end-products, such as rare earth magnets, back to the West.

Thanks to its technological prowess in refining, and its willingness to forgo environmental safeguards, China has established itself as the leader in the critical mineral processing business.

But Washington has finally begun to recognize its critical minerals vulnerability.

An executive order signed on March 20 by US President Trump invokes emergency powers to boost the ability of the US to produce critical minerals. The idea is to facilitate domestic natural resource extraction to make the country less reliant on foreign imports.

In response to China’s dominance over critical minerals, the executive order encourages faster permitting for mining and processing projects and a directive for the Interior Department to prioritize mineral production on federal land.

In fact, the US government has committed billions worth of loans and grants to support a domestic critical mineral supply chain, as the country seeks to become more resource-independent and less beholden to China and other countries for minerals critical to a clean-energy future, and to the tech-intensive defense systems that safeguard national security.

Canada is also working to establish a domestic supply chain for critical minerals, essential for the green and digital economies. This effort involves building out the value chain, from exploration and mining to processing, manufacturing and recycling. Canada is already a top producer of several critical minerals.

Canada has officially designated 31 minerals as "critical" for its economy and national security. The list includes aluminum, cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium, nickel, platinum group metals, rare earth elements, tungsten, uranium and zinc.

The United States Geological Survey in 2022 produced a list of 50 critical minerals. The list, which has several minerals in common with Canada’s, are considered essential to the economic and national security of the US, and whose supply chain is vulnerable to disruption.

To catch up with China, more critical mineral mines need to be built in Canada and the United States, to add to those already in production. Below, in no particular order, are five of the biggest critical mineral mines in North America:

Mountain Pass

Owner: MP Materials

Main commodity: rare earth elements

Mountain Pass in California is the only operating rare earths mine in the United States.

Until recently, MP Materials dug up predominantly light rare earth elements from Mountain Pass and sent them to China for processing.

The company in January announced it commenced commercial production of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) metal and trial production of automotive-grade, sintered neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets at its Independence facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

MP Materials is focused on refining a compound of neodymium and praseodymium — one of the most common materials used to make rare earth magnets — as well as lanthanum and cerium. These elements are classified as "light rare earths." 

The Department of Defense awarded MP Materials a $35 million contract in 2022 to build a facility to process heavy REEs.

Heavy rare earths terbium and dysprosium are needed to make rare earth permanent magnets that can operate in high temperatures, while samarium is used to produce samarium-cobalt magnets found in aerospace and defense applications.

According to the US Geological Survey, MP Materials produces a rare earth concentrate that annually contributes around 15% of the rare earth minerals consumed each year. In 2024, the company reported producing 45,455 tonnes of rare earths oxides in concentrate and a record 1,294 tonnes of neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) oxide.

Silver Peak

Owner: Albemarle Corp.

Main commodity: lithium

Albemarle’s Silver Peak in Nevada is the only producing lithium mine in the United States. The lithium brine operation has been operating since the 1960s. According to Albemarle, a large American chemicals company, to start the production process at Silver Peak, brine containing high concentrations of lithium is extracted from non-potable saltwater aquifers using a series of wells.

Tapping into targeted aquifers that are approximately 300 to 2,000 feet below the surface, wells continually pump the non-potable brine to evaporation ponds at the surface.

Once in the evaporation pond system, lithium salts in the brine are concentrated over a period of months using solar evaporation before being transferred to another evaporation pond in the system. This process is continued multiple times over a continuous 18 to 24-month period until the lithium concentration reaches a level high enough for conversion to lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide.

The final pond at the end of the process will have a lithium concentration 50 times higher than the concentration of the brine that is originally extracted. In the final step, the material is processed to remove impurities and then dried and milled into a fine white powder of lithium carbonate.

The facility produces about 5,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) annually. An expansion project is underway to double production by 2025.

Red Dog

Owner: Teck Resources

Main commodity: zinc

Red Dog is one of the world's largest zinc mines, located about 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of the Arctic Circle in northwest Alaska. According to North of 60 Mining News, it is the largest critical minerals mine in the United States, both in term of quantity and value of the minerals produced.

Zinc and by-products germanium, silver and lead are open-pit-mined using traditional trucks and loaders. The concentrate is shipped to Teck’s smelter in Trail for processing, before being sent to customers in Europe and Asia.

The Red Dog mine started in 1982 and its mine life is expected to last until 2031. Last year Red Dog produced 556,000 tonnes of concentrate. Its annual zinc output is over 1 billion pounds.

While zinc is considered more a base metal than a critical metal, used for example in galvanizing, alloying and die-casting, it is providing a similar role in providing a weatherproofing layer to wind turbines, solar farms, and new electrical transmission infrastructure, states North of 60 Mining News.

Morenci

Owner: Freeport McMoRan

Main commodity: copper

Morenci is the largest copper mine in the United States. Majority-owned by US-based Freeport McMoRan, the mine in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert has been operating for more than 150 years. It has proven and probable reserves of 12.3 million tonnes grading 0.23 percent copper, and production capacity of more than 125 million tonnes per annum.

Operations at the open-pit mine are expected to continue until 2041.

Freeport is trying to develop sulfide leaching technology that can extract lower-grade copper from waste piles around the site. The piles, shaped like giant cones, are expected to hold nearly 10 million tons of copper, a base metal that has recently been upgraded to critical due to its important role in electrification. Four times as much copper is used in electric vehicles versus gas-powered ones, for example. BHP, the world’s largest miner, estimates that copper used for data centers will grow sixfold by 2050.

Lac des Îles

Owner: Northern Graphite

Main commodity: graphite

Graphite is a critical mineral mainly due to its use in lithium-ion batteries. Graphite is in the anode part of the battery and there are currently no substitutes.

China, which produces three-quarters of the world’s graphite, has imposed restrictions on graphite exports. Exporters must apply for permits to ship synthetic and natural flake graphite.

Increased usage of natural graphite is expected from non-Chinese sources, who are seeking to establish ex-China supply chains.

There are currently no producing graphite mines in the United States and only one in Canada — Lac des Îles in Quebec. The mine produced 11,697 tonnes of graphite concentrate in 2024.

In operation since 1989, Lac des Îles is in danger of running out of ore by the end of this year. According to the Globe and Mail, to keep the mine running into the 2030s requires an investment of $10 million.

Northern Graphite primarily sells its graphite to US industrial customers, who use the mineral in a range of applications, including brake pads, industrial lubricants, fuel cells and in defence applications such as the manufacturing of ammunition, cannons, missiles and in paint for fighter jets, the newspaper states.

5 Biggest Critical Mineral Mines in North America

The article highlights five major critical mineral mines in North America—MP Materials’ Mountain Pass (rare earths), Albemarle’s Silver Peak (lithium), Teck’s Red Dog (zinc), Freeport’s Morenci (copper), and Northern Graphite’s Lac des Îles (graphite)—as part of efforts to reduce reliance on China. The U.S. and Canada are investing in domestic mining and supply chains to secure critical minerals for clean energy, defense, and tech industries.