The country, however, was 100% import reliant on 20 mineral commodities, including rare earths, manganese and niobium, which are among a suite of materials often designated as “critical” or “strategic.”

While the earth contains enough potash to meet the increased global demand for crop production, some regions lack potash deposits needed for optimal food crop yields, the latest global assessment of the resource by the USGS shows.

The first-ever, geologically-based global assessment of undiscovered copper resources estimates that 3.5 billion metric tons of copper may exist worldwide.