Los Angeles cargo port, California (USA). (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)

Trump signed an order directing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to begin a national security review under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. That is the same law Trump used in his first term to impose 25% global tariffs on steel and aluminum and the one he used in February to launch a probe into potential copper tariffs.

The review will assess critical minerals, including cobalt, nickel, the 17 rare earths, uranium, and other elements that US officials have determined are essential to national security.

The US currently extracts and processes scant amounts of lithium, has only one nickel mine but no nickel smelter, and has no cobalt mine or refinery. While it has several copper mines, the US has only two copper smelters and is reliant on other nations to process that key metal.