CRITICAL MINERALS CONSORTIUM Modern military capability begins far upstream of the battlefield.
MISSION
To secure the future of the American Defense Industrial Base by synchronizing the technical, diplomatic, and economic dimensions of critical mineral supply chains. Through elite interagency coordination, global academic partnership, and original research in critical minerals policy, the CMCWP ensures that from the point of extraction to the theater of operations, the United States and its allies maintain an unassailable resource advantage.
VISION
To establish West Point as the premier center for understanding the relationship between critical minerals, industrial capacity, and modern warfare while preparing future Army leaders by bringing together the expertise necessary to strengthen American readiness, resilience, and strategic advantage.
OVERVIEW
Modern military capability begins far upstream of the battlefield.
The systems that warfighters rely upon depend on secure access to critical minerals, the ability to process those resources, and the industrial capacity to transform them into usable capability.
A vulnerability in extraction, processing, investment, production, or the global supply chain can ultimately become an operational vulnerability.
The Consortium examines those connections so that future Army leaders better understand the industrial foundations of combat power and how decisions made far from the battlefield can affect readiness, sustainment, and military operations.
Critical minerals sit at the intersection of military readiness, economic security, technology, industry, diplomacy, and global competition.
The Critical Minerals Consortium at West Point provides an interdisciplinary environment for examining those relationships.
At the center of that mission are cadets.
Through independent studies, faculty-led research, internships, exercises, events, and engagement with leading experts, cadets develop a deeper understanding of how resources, industry, logistics, technology, economics, and geopolitics shape military power.
Supporting that educational mission is a network of expertise spanning the military, government, academia, national laboratories, mining and processing companies, finance, technology, and other industries.