Overview
To strengthen supply chains for critical technologies like microelectronics while reducing reliance on China, the U.S. must increase onshore refining of critical minerals like rare earths and lithium.
However, regulatory challenges at the federal, state, and local level have been a major roadblock to scaling up domestic refining operations.
To expand the onshore refining of critical minerals, policymakers must convince the public that the benefits of onshoring outweigh the costs.
What are the current public attitudes toward onshoring critical mineral refining operations? Which segments of the public are most supportive of onshoring efforts? How can policymakers learn from and expand this support?
These are key questions explored in this NSDPI paper analyzing public support for onshoring critical mineral refining and how policymakers can strengthen this support.
Key takeaways
- As of December 2025, the U.S. public largely does not strongly support onshoring critical mineral refining.
- The more an individual self-reported familiarity with critical minerals and self-reported trust in existing regulations around mineral refining, the more they tended to support onshoring.
- Our data suggest multiple pathways to increase public support of onshoring initiatives: Some respondents need to be convinced that onshoring would offer substantial benefits for the U.S., while others that onshoring will not bring environmental damage.