Let us not forget our most abundant critical mineral in the ring....chromite.  I expect a few of those call from Biden would be about securing a safe and predictable supply for their military uses.  Pretty hard for the US to get this somewhere else locally.  Alaska historically but currently?

===========================================

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/story/2020/12/31/critical-minerals-alaska-2020/usgs-sorts-critical-mineral-hierarchy/6486.html

USGS sorts critical mineral hierarchy

The highest-ranking critical minerals are also important to the security of the U.S. For example, the single-crystal turbine blades used in fighter aircraft are composed of superalloys containing cobalt, chromium, rhenium, and tantalum. These critical metals provide the physical and chemical properties that allow for improved design tolerances that increase thrust and enable higher operating temperatures to improve efficiency. They also are coated with yttria-stabilized zirconia and platinum-aluminide to improve thermal stability and extend the life of the blades.

The U.S. is heavily dependent on single countries for all these metals and minerals, which could get disrupted by any number of natural or human factors.

"International trade tensions and conflict are well-known reasons, but there are many other possibilities," said Nassar. "Disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and even domestic civil strife can affect a country's mineral industry and its ability to export mineral commodities to the U.S."

The new USGS tool provides decision makers a way of evaluating mineral supply risks, which will allow businesses to better insulate themselves against those risks and policymakers a sharper focus on the most critical of the minerals critical to the U.S.

It also provides mining companies seeking to unlock Alaska's rich critical minerals potential a guide to the mined materials most likely to be in short supply.

==============================================

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/page/no-viable-substitute-for-critical-chromium/5768.html

No viable substitute for critical chromium

A vital ingredient in stainless steel and superalloys, chromium is considered by the United States Geological Survey as "one of the nation's most important strategic and critical materials."

"Because there is no viable substitute for chromium in the production of stainless steel and because the United States has small chromium resources, there has been concern about domestic supply during every national military emergency since World War I," the USGS explains.

No stainless substitute

Best known for being the primary ingredient of the smooth, mirrorlike plating on automobiles, chromium is a highly prized alloy due to the hardness and corrosion resistance it lends to other metals.

By far the largest use of chromium is in stainless steels, which typically contain 10.5 to 32 percent of this critical alloying metal.

This strategic metal also lends its hardness and corrosion-resistant properties to superalloys, specialty metals that can maintain their integrity in extreme conditions.

"Chromium in superalloys (high-performance alloys) permits jet engines to operate in a high-temperature, high-stress, chemically oxidizing environment," USGS inked in an informational page on the metal.

The properties chromium imbues into alloys, coupled with limited domestic supply, is why the geological survey considers it a critical and strategic metal.

While shiny bumpers, hubcaps and tailpipes are obvious applications of chromium's properties, yellow school buses and stripes down the center of American highways are lesser known yet highly recognizable uses of this element's pigment properties.

"School bus yellow, originally called chrome yellow for the chromium pigment, was adopted for use on school buses in North America in 1939 because black lettering on the yellow buses is easy to see in the semidarkness of early morning," the USGS explained.

In fact, chromium derives its name from the Greek word for color, chroma, due to the intense coloration of many chromium compounds.

Interestingly, chromium impurities give some of our most prized gems their brilliant colors. The colorless corundum crystal is a ruby with the addition of chromium, and a bit of chromium changes the geometry of the atoms of beryl slightly, resulting in emeralds.

While chromium derived its name from its pigmentation qualities, it is the durability this metal lends to alloys that drives its demand.

Roughly 85 percent of the world's chromium is used for stainless steel and chrome plating, and the metal has no equal when it comes to the anti-corrosive and hardness qualities.

"World stainless steel producers depend directly or indirectly on chromium supply," USGS wrote in its annual report, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2019.