Public Citizen Challenges U.S. Critical Minerals Deals as Congress Examines Africa and Central Asia Strategy

Highlights

• Public Citizen found fewer than half of the 38 announced U.S. mineral MOUs publicly available in full, raising serious transparency concerns.
• The group warns that weak labor, environmental, and anti-corruption standards risk repeating exploitative resource extraction patterns in Africa and Central Asia.
• REEx notes the missing half of the debate is China, which holds decades of financing, infrastructure, and processing advantages across target regions.
• Both Public Citizen and the House Ways and Means Committee agree host-country value-chain development is key to durable supply security.
• A signed MOU produces no dysprosium—politically unstable or economically unfair deals offer no real supply security for the U.S.