HCM2003 - 561R

To the President of the United States of America, the Director of the United States Geological Survey, the United States Secretary of the Interior and the Congress of the United States of America:

Your memorialist respectfully represents:

Whereas, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) "Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023," the estimated value of United States metal mine production in 2022 was $34.7 billion; and

Whereas, in 2022, copper comprised the highest total share of that value, about 33%, with the United States (U.S.) producing an estimated 1.3 million tons of copper valued at approximately $11.45 billion; and

Whereas, globally, the U.S. produced about 5.9% of all copper in 2022 and was the fifth largest producer, behind Chile, Peru, Congo and China; and

Whereas, Arizona ranked number one in the country for total value of nonfuel mineral production in the U.S., with copper representing the principal nonfuel mineral commodity produced in 2022; and

Whereas, according to Standard & Poor's "The Future of Copper," the demand for copper to supply the rapid deployment of new energy technologies, such as electric vehicles, batteries and solar photovoltaics, while continuing to serve all other sectors that are dependent on copper for economic growth, is expected to double to 50 million metric tons by 2035 and reach more than 53 million metric tons by 2050; and

Whereas, the expected and rapid rise in demand presents an immediate need for the mining and exploration industries to increase global supplies of copper and copper reserves, which U.S.-based and U.S.-aligned companies are willing and able to provide; and

Whereas, funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS & Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act will invest more than $135 billion on projects related to critical minerals sourcing and processing for the development of advanced manufacturing and America's energy future; and

Whereas, in October 2022, the White House launched the American Battery Materials Initiative to align and leverage federal resources to grow a more resilient and domestic end-to-end supply chain for the manufacture of battery energy storage systems and electric vehicles, as well as to support the faster and fairer development and permitting of domestic projects to accelerate increased domestic energy and mineral production; and

Whereas, the supply chain issues that the U.S. experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how easily projects can be delayed when critical materials are suddenly not available for months; and

Whereas, developing domestic supplies of critical minerals and strategic metals ensures a reliable supply chain that is not subject to global disruptions, provides domestically sourced materials for U.S. manufactured products and creates jobs across the entire mining lifecycle for metals that are essential to batteries, electric vehicles and other energy technologies; and

Whereas, in addition to significant efforts to develop the processing and manufacturing facilities for energy metals, the USGS developed the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative to study different regions and mineral systems to better understand where critical minerals can be found, identify potential mineralized areas containing critical minerals and which minerals might be at high enough concentrations for extraction, and to provide basic geologic data to the public. This data can be used freely by the mining and exploration industries to seek additional deposits of critical minerals and hopefully pursue development and extraction of such critical resources; and

Whereas, in response to Executive Order 13817 of December 20, 2017, "A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals," the United States Secretary of the Interior, in coordination with the heads of other relevant executive departments or agencies, developed a list of 35 "critical minerals" that were nonfuel 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; and

Whereas, section 7002 of the Energy Act of 2020 (Public Law 116-260) directed the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to, through the Director of the USGS, designate a list of critical minerals and update that list every three years. It also instructed the USGS to conduct domestic resource assessments of critical minerals and make that information publicly available; and

Whereas, in 2022, the USGS issued a 2022 final list of critical minerals (87 FR 10381), "2022 Final List of Critical Minerals," which was determined using the most up-to-date scientific methods to evaluate mineral criticality and contains 15 more commodities than the 2018 list of critical minerals, increasing the number of mineral commodities included in the list from 35 to 50; and

Whereas, of the 50 mineral commodities identified in the 2022 list of critical minerals, the U.S. was 100% net import reliant for 12, and an additional 31 critical mineral commodities had a net import reliance greater than 50% of apparent consumption; and

Whereas, according to the USGS "Methodology and Technical Input for the 2021 Review and Revision of the U.S. Critical Minerals List," the criteria threshold for a commodity's inclusion in the list of critical minerals is a recency-weighted mean supply risk score of at least .40, and commodities that meet or exceed this score are recommended for inclusion on this list; and

Whereas, USGS data collection and analysis considers emerging issues in crucial supply chains and, every three years, identifies the nation's current vulnerabilities to potential disruptions; and

Whereas, copper has always been critical to our national security, water infrastructure and electrical and energy infrastructure, and recent significant increases in the supply risk, particularly from adversarial countries like China and Russia, have only increased the risk of disruption to global copper supplies and have made its immediate inclusion on the critical mineral list necessary; and

Whereas, copper was not included in the 2018 or 2022 critical minerals list; and

Whereas, with the release of the draft 2022 list, a new qualitative methodology was created to look more closely at a supply risk score by calculating the economic vulnerability, disruption potential and trade exposure of various minerals; and

Whereas, in a 2022 letter to Utah Governor Spencer Cox, USGS Associate Director for Energy and Mineral Resources, Sarah Ryker, stated that "If the criticality status of a mineral commodity were to change significantly in the near term, the USGS would publish information on the changed circumstances without waiting for a 3-year update cycle"; and

Whereas, the share of copper consumption that is met by net imports has increased from 31% in 2016 to 49.3% in 2021 and, in the first half of 2022, the U.S. reliance on net imports remained at 48 percent; and

Whereas, since 2018, the risks to copper from imports have increased dramatically; and

Whereas, in 2023, the Copper Development Association issued a report replicating the USGS's methodology for determining mineral criticality and determined that copper's updated supply risk score in 2022 was 0.423, and the four-year weighted average score is now 0.407, both of which are above the USGS's 0.40 threshold for automatic inclusion on the critical minerals list ("Copper Meets Inclusion Criteria for U.S. Geological Survey's Critical Minerals List"); and

Whereas, in 2023, a group of six U.S. senators, including Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly from Arizona, wrote a letter to the Honorable Deb Haaland, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, urging her to "revisit and consider" the designation of copper as a critical mineral; and

Whereas, given copper's major role in state and national economic development, national security and infrastructure, copper is a critical mineral and should be included on the USGS's list of critical minerals; and

Whereas, the recently available data, dramatic rise in the supply risk score, significant change in circumstances and critical status of copper merit immediate attention and require the USGS to publish updated information without having to wait for the conclusion of its next 3-year update cycle; and

Whereas, designation of copper on the critical minerals list will significantly benefit and protect the United States as we continue to invest in an emerging energy economy and other copper-intensive applications; and

Whereas, by recognizing copper as a "critical mineral," the United States government can more effectively ensure a secure and reliable supply of domestic copper resources in the years to come, achieve mineral independence and promote the development of its strategic commercial and industrial sectors that are dependent on copper supplies.

Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:

1. That the United States Geological Survey add copper to its list of critical minerals.

2. That the United States Department of the Interior and United States Congress support the United States Geological Survey in adding copper to the United States Geological Survey critical minerals list.

3. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior, the Director of the United States Geological Survey and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.