The Defense Department has yet to impose restrictions to ensure adversarial nations like China, Russia, Iran and entities working on their behalf aren’t buying critical minerals like lithium and cobalt and rare earth elements from the nation’s defense stockpile, according to a new watchdog report.
The Government Accountability Office in a new report Tuesday called on DOD officials overseeing the National Defense Stockpile to more deeply vet entities asking to buy those materials.
The stockpile is a reserve based in Virginia made up of U.S.-owned materials that can be used during national emergencies, including metals like cobalt used in EVs and rare earth elements that are needed to make permanent magnets vital for EV motors as well as wind turbines.
As it stands, DOD is relying on those entities to self-report their location and how they’ll use the material. But, according to GAO, a 2019 law prohibited sales from the stockpile to certain adversary nations — unless sales are in the national interest. DOD has not yet crafted policy to impose those restrictions or more deeply vet buyers, GAO found.
