Critical Mineral Traceability for Energy and Economic Security

Amid rising risks linked to the high concentration of critical mineral supply chains, the ability to track where minerals originate, how they move through supply chains, who has custody of them and how they are transformed is increasingly important for policymakers seeking to create diversified and responsible supply chains.

This report provides insights from a first-of-its kind survey on traceability conducted by the IEA and OECD. More than 80 respondent companies active across supply chains of the six focus minerals (copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements) provided results between October and December 2025. Drawing on these, the report assesses the current state of company traceability practices, examines how governments are deploying traceability as a policy instrument, and identifies key barriers to wider adoption, including high implementation costs, limited interoperability between systems and challenges in transmitting information along complex and geographically concentrated supply chains. Lastly, the report identifies five actions for policymakers to support wider uptake of traceability systems for supply chain diversification and resilience.