WASTE: U.S. already has the critical minerals it needs – but they’re being thrown away, new analysis shows.

All the critical minerals the U.S. needs annually for energy, defense and technology applications are already being mined at existing U.S. facilities, according to a new analysis published today in the journal Science.

The catch? These minerals, such as cobalt, lithium, gallium and rare earth elements like neodymium and yttrium, are currently being discarded as tailings of other mineral streams like gold and zinc, said Elizabeth Holley, associate professor of mining engineering at Colorado School of Mines and lead author of the new paper.

“The challenge lies in recovery,” Holley said. “It’s like getting salt out of bread dough – we need to do a lot more research, development and policy to make the recovery of these critical minerals economically feasible.”

Exit quote: “The analysis in Science looks at a total of 70 elements used in applications ranging from consumer electronics like cell phones to medical devices to satellites to renewable energy to fighter jets and shows that unrecovered byproducts from other U.S. mines could meet the demand for all but two – platinum and palladium.”