How To Climb a Critical Mineral Mountain? Come Together, Right Now

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Laboratory of the Rockies recently held its 2026 Partner Forum, bringing together mining companies, researchers, universities, and government officials to discuss how the country can build a stronger domestic supply of critical minerals - the raw materials used in electronics, batteries, solar panels, heat pumps, and other energy technologies. Right now, more than 80 percent of the country's critical minerals come from foreign sources, mostly China, which affects both availability and prices for the technologies homeowners might buy for energy upgrades.

Speakers described several ways the U.S. could catch up: recovering minerals from waste piles, e-waste, and seawater; developing new filtering and separation technologies; finding substitute materials so products depend less on hard-to-get minerals; and using AI to speed up mineral discovery and processing. One company, USA Rare Earth, is already building a full pipeline in the U.S. - mining in Texas, developing processing methods in Colorado, and making magnets (used in things like medical devices and defense equipment) in Oklahoma. The lab also announced new partnerships with the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Utah to train more workers in this field, and is building a large new facility in Colorado where companies can test and scale up new mining and refining technologies.

There's no direct action for homeowners here, but the underlying goal - a stronger, more reliable domestic supply of these minerals - could eventually mean steadier prices and availability for solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, and other electronics that depend on them.