SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Section 7002(a)(2) of the Energy Act of 2020 (Pub. L. 116-260, div. Z, 134 Stat. 2418) defines “critical materials” to be: any non-fuel mineral, element, substance, or material that the Secretary of Energy determines has high risk for supply chain disruption and serves an essential function in one or more energy technologies, including technologies that produce, transmit, store, and conserve energy (referred to here as a critical material for energy) or a critical mineral (as designated by the Secretary of the Interior).^[1]

On August 4, 2023, DOE published its Notice of Final Determination on 2023 DOE Critical Materials List (“Critical Materials List”).^[2] The Critical Materials List includes the following:

Critical materials for energy: aluminum, cobalt, copper*, dysprosium, electrical steel* (grain-oriented electrical steel, non-grain-oriented electrical steel, and amorphous steel), fluorine, gallium, iridium, lithium, magnesium, natural graphite, neodymium, nickel, platinum, praseodymium, terbium, silicon*, and silicon carbide*.^[3]

Critical minerals: The Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), published a 2022 final list of critical minerals that includes the following 50 minerals: Aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, cerium, cesium, chromium, cobalt, dysprosium, erbium, europium, fluorspar, gadolinium, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, holmium, indium, iridium, lanthanum, lithium, lutetium, magnesium, manganese, neodymium, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, praseodymium, rhodium, rubidium, ruthenium, samarium, scandium, tantalum, tellurium, terbium, thulium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, ytterbium, yttrium, zinc, and zirconium.

The critical materials for energy included on the Critical Material List are based on the criticality assessed in the short- and medium-term. A detailed description of DOE's methodology can be found in its Critical Minerals Assessment published on its website in July 2023.^[4] On May 22, 2025, metallurgical grade coal for steelmaking was added to DOE's list of critical materials for energy.^[5]

By this notice, the Secretary of Energy advises the public of the addition of helium to DOE's Critical Material List. The assessment that forms the justification for including helium on the Critical Material List can be found on DOE's website: www.energy.gov/​cmm/​what-are-critical-materials-and-critical-minerals. The assessment concludes that helium is needed globally for semiconductor manufacturing and other key energy applications. Meeting the policy goal of building U.S. SI infrastructure will require expansion of semiconductor production and thereby supports the determination that helium is a DOE critical material.

Furthermore, this action directly supports the President's policy goal of “Winning the AI Race: America's AI Action Plan” ^[6] and “Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure”.^[7]

Signing Authority

This document of the Department of Energy was signed on October 21, 2026, by Audrey Robertson, Assistant Secretary, Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, pursuant to delegated authority from the Secretary of Energy. That document with the original signature and date is maintained by DOE. For administrative purposes only, and in compliance with requirements of the Office of the Federal Register, the undersigned DOE Federal Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to sign and submit the document in electronic format for publication, as an official document of the Department of Energy. This administrative process in no way alters the legal effect of this document upon publication in the Federal Register .

91 FR 67558