By Abigail Hunter, Executive Director, SAFE’s Center for Critical Minerals Strategy; Skip Estes, Director, SAFE’s Government Relations; Devon Lammert, Associate, SAFE’s Government Relations
As China increasingly flexes its control over global critical minerals supply chains, a small-yet-mighty team at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been quietly putting in the work to enable greater U.S. self-reliance. The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, or Earth MRI, discovers potentially valuable mineral deposits for private sector exploration and development. With Earth MRI’s sunset date looming this month, Congress and the Trump Administration have a critical opportunity to reauthorize it.
Taking full stock of U.S mineral wealth is an essential predicate to increasing U.S. mineral production, while further helping identify scarce minerals that will require partnerships with allied countries to meet demand. Earth MRI catalogues U.S. resources by collecting high-quality, diverse data, often in partnership with state geological surveys, including geologic, geophysical, geochemical, hyperspectral, and other data types to build comprehensive assessments of the nation’s geology. To date, Earth MRI has analyzed 35% of the United States and 50% of critical mineral focus areas with high-quality data. Before Earth MRI began work in 2019, only 7% of the country was covered, a testament to the speed and quality of their work.
This inventory of what lies beneath our feet helps de-risk private sector exploration by providing a baseline understanding of the mineral resources may be available. The United States stretches across almost 4 million square miles. For an exploration company deciding where to spend millions of dollars drilling, Earth MRI’s information can make searching for the next major mineral deposit less like finding a needle in a haystack and allow them to deploy capital toward more productive ends.
Take Wyoming, for example. Over one year, Earth MRI conducted three airborne geochemical surveys in partnership with the Wyoming State Geological Survey (WSGS) covering roughly 7,000 square miles. These surveys uncovered numerous potentially valuable resources, including rare earth elements, gallium, germanium, tungsten, graphite, cobalt, and nickel.
Earth MRI makes mineral cataloging possible for state governments. The WSGS’ annual budget of ~$3.5 million pales in comparison to Earth MRI’s ~$75 million annual budget, which it can use to target high-priority areas across the 50 states. Without Earth MRI, Wyoming and other state geological surveys would not have nearly the funding or manpower to comprehensively catalog the mineral resources located within their borders.
This year, however, state governments and mining companies may lose access to Earth MRI’s benefits. Earth MRI’s initial $320 million in funding and statutory authorization will expire at the end of September. According to the agency’s estimates, Earth MRI will need at least another $320 million and extended authorization for five more years to completely catalog America’s mineral wealth.
Fortunately, both the House and Senate have introduced their respective versions of the Earth MRI Reauthorization Act of 2026 to extend and fund it. These bills, led by Senators Murkowski (R-AK) and Hickenlooper (D-CO) alongside Representatives Wittman (R-VA) and Dingell (D-MI), differ only in the funding level authorized for FYs 2027-2031. The Senate version provides $320 million, while the House offers $84 million, which is aligned with the budget allocated in the House Interior Appropriations package for FY 2027.
Though both parties over several Congresses and Administrations have directed significant focus to securing mineral supply chains, their approaches have differed. The Biden Administration, backed by a Democrat-controlled Congress, focused on financial incentives for companies that moved away from Chinese minerals and components in finished products like electric vehicles, cleaning up abandoned mine sites, and directly funding manufacturing projects that would provide domestic alternatives to Chinese-controlled goods. The Trump Administration, backed by a Republican-controlled Congress, is focused heavily on domestic mining–taking public stakes in minerals companies and individual projects, eliminating permitting and regulatory barriers, and using government procurement to ensure defense supply chain security.
Earth MRI acts as a force multiplier for both parties’ preferred approach. At a House Natural Resources Committee hearing examining Earth MRI earlier this year, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle praised the program. Republicans lauded the importance of state partnerships and creating a full inventory of domestic mineral resources to support future mining activity. Democrats highlighted the value of Earth MRI’s public data backing up policy decisions, and the support these data provide for efforts to clean up and reprocess minerals sitting in waste piles.
As the midterms loom and attention turns toward campaigns, SAFE is pleased to see Congress considering legislation to fully fund and reauthorize Earth MRI before the October recess. Regardless of political tides, Earth MRI will play a critical role in enabling U.S. mineral development into the next decade. Authorizing and funding this program into its next phase will give the federal government, state partners, and private sector the data they require to advance secure supply chains.
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