From Uranium and the second Nuclear Renaissance to Neodymium and the other rare earth elements, various critical minerals have dominated the news cycle throughout 2025.

That’s why Briefs Finance Chief Analyst, Jackson Moreland, went  to Washington D.C. to join industry leaders and members of congress for the Critical Minerals & National Security Summit - a joint event between the National Security Institute, and a non-profit supply chain initiative known as PRISM.

But first, what is a critical mineral?

According to the U.S. government, critical minerals were established as part of the Energy Act of 2020, and include any non-fuel minerals that meet three major criteria:

• Is essential to the U.S. economy or national security.
• Has a supply chain vulnerable to disruption.
• Serves an essential function in manufacturing products. 

As of December 2025, the list includes 60 minerals, including things like the notorious rare earth minerals, silicon, and the recently added copper.

Jackson has focused much of his research on critical minerals, describing them as “the backbone of future technology,” and “one of the key investment opportunities in the digital revolution.”

The event contained key insights on every part of the critical mineral supply chain, and featured strong, bi-partisan statements from government officials including:

• Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA-2)
• Rep. Young Kim (R-CA-40)
• Sen. Todd Young (R-IN)
• Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
• Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL-6) 
• Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA-2)

As well as a number of CEOs, military officials, and foreign delegates.

One of the key presentations from this summit was an address by Rep. Rob Wittman; Wittman, who chairs the Critical Minerals and Rare Earth Work Group for the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, addressed the strategic importance of critical minerals and rare earth elements.

He highlighted the short-sightedness of U.S. policy, specializing in the manufacturing of good while leaving the mining and refinement to foreign entities, namely China, and hoping that it wouldn’t be used as leverage in the future.

Rep. Wittman also discussed two pieces of legislation to which he’s attached his name:

Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery (SPEED) Act: Also known as H.R. 3838, which focuses on reducing bureaucracy, and reducing the time it takes for the pentagon to sign a procurement contract from ~2 years, down to ~3 months.

The SECURE Minerals Act: Also known as H.R. 10378, which established a strategic reserve for critical minerals, similar in structure to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but with the intent of stopping Chinese price manipulation.

How does it do it? One aspect of the SECURE Minerals Act is establishing a “price floor,” which would prevent the commodity price of any critical mineral from falling below its cost of production.

This counters one of China’s common tactics: flooding the market with its commodity reserves in order to collapse the price. 

As of today, an estimated 90% of the critical minerals market is controlled by China. By driving down commodity prices, it often makes new or developing mines unprofitable, and often stops their development.

This leaves control of these minerals in the hands of China, which then allows the price to stabilize and rebuilds its reserves.

The textbook example of this was the artificial boom-and-bust of battery-grade lithium between 2022 and 2025:

In 2022: The price of lithium carbonate sits at ~$84,000 per tonne.

By 2024: The price of lithium carbonate had lost ~85% of its value, being driven down to ~$10,000.

Many analysts believe that this crash was due to an intentional oversupply by China, and effectively stalled the development of new lithium mines across the globe. 

So what would a price floor accomplish?

It could create an investment boom into new mining facilities, as well as stabilize the share prices of publicly traded mining companies that often operate under a loss due to oversupply.

But it’s not good news for everyone, there’s a chance that a price floor could also drive investment away from newer, more efficient mining technologies, with traditional mines becoming a low-hanging fruit.

A boom in mine creation could also lead to a natural oversupply in a few years time.

While many are trying to predict the effects of these pieces of legislation, they still have several steps before they become law.

The SPEED Act will be up for a vote at either the end of 2025 or the first quarter of 2026.

The SECURE Minerals act will need to be reintroduced, as it was introduced during the last congress, but did not reach a conclusion.

It’s worth noting that signals from congress show the act is far from dead, and a reintroduction in 2026 seems likely.

If you’re interested in the rest of Jackson’s coverage of the Critical Minerals & National Security Summit, it will be available to Briefs Pro  members in the coming weeks.