On 30 July 2026 the President signed a determination under section 101 of the Defense Production Act of 1950 finding that recoverable critical minerals and materials are “critical industrial resources necessary to promoting the national defense,” and delegating to the Secretary of Commerce the authority to restrict their export. The determination was published in the Federal Register on 4 August 2026.
Two days later Commerce published the instrument that gives it teeth: a Defense Priorities and Allocations System directive allocation order, in force from 27 August 2026 to 27 August 2027.
What it covers, exactly
Not all scrap, and not all critical minerals. The order reaches two things:
- Black mass — defined in the order as “any shredded lithium-ion battery scrap that contains cathode material (which may include lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese), anode material (graphite, silicon) or other residual battery cell materials,” under Schedule B codes 8549.13.00.00, 8549.14.00.00 and 8549.19.00.00.
- Tungsten waste and scrap, Schedule B code 8101.97.00.00.
A US person selling either must allocate 100% of monthly sales to US persons, and the material must remain physically located within the United States unless the Bureau of Industry and Security authorises otherwise. Sales to a foreign buyer need advance BIS approval. Exceptions are available case by case — hardship, a processing or refining arrangement abroad with re-importation, irreparable harm — on written request to BIS.
Why this one matters more than its size suggests
Black mass is the closest thing the United States has to a domestic graphite mine. The USGS is blunt about the alternative: “In 2025, no natural graphite was produced domestically in the United States.” Amorphous graphite was last recorded in Montana in 1989; flake graphite was last produced in Texas in 1979. The graphite, cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese in a shredded battery pack are already inside the country, already separated from their ore, and already past the expensive part.
Until now a great deal of that material was collected here and shipped somewhere else to be refined, because the refining capacity is somewhere else. That is the round trip this site exists to describe, running in miniature and at speed: material leaves as feedstock and returns as a cathode.
The order does not build a refinery. What it does is make the feedstock unavailable to anyone who is not building one here, for a year. Whether a year is long enough for that to matter is the open question, and the order expires on 27 August 2027 unless it is extended.
If this reaches you
If you collect, shred, broker or export battery scrap or tungsten scrap, this is a compliance obligation with a date on it, not a policy signal. The Federal Register notice is the operative document and the allocation order names the BIS address for exception requests. This site is not a law firm and this is not advice — read the notice, and if you sell abroad, get someone who does this for a living to read it too.
