II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1463
To allow the Secretary of the Interior to enter into memoranda of under-
standing for the purpose of scientific and technical cooperation in the
mapping of critical minerals and rare earth elements, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL10, 2025
Mr. C
OONS(for himself, Mr. YOUNG, Mr. HICKENLOOPER, and Mr. CORNYN)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To allow the Secretary of the Interior to enter into memo-
randa of understanding for the purpose of scientific and
technical cooperation in the mapping of critical minerals
and rare earth elements, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Finding Opportunities 4
for Resource Exploration Act’’ or the ‘‘Finding ORE Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
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•S 1463 IS
(1) ALLIED FOREIGN COUNTRY .—The term ‘‘al-1
lied foreign country’’ means a country with which 2
the United States has entered into a mutual defense 3
treaty or other mutual defense agreement. 4
(2) C
RITICAL MINERAL.—The term ‘‘critical 5
mineral’’ has the meaning given the term in section 6
7002(a) of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 7
1606(a)). 8
(3) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION .—The 9
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 10
meaning given the term in section 101 of the Higher 11
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001). 12
(4) P
ARTNER FOREIGN COUNTRY .—The term 13
‘‘partner foreign country’’ means a country that is 14
a source of a critical mineral or rare earth element. 15
(5) R
ARE EARTH ELEMENT .—The term ‘‘rare 16
earth element’’ means cerium, dysprosium, erbium, 17
europium, gadolinium, holmium, lanthanum, lute-18
tium, neodymium, praseodymium, promethium, sa-19
marium, scandium, terbium, thulium, ytterbium, or 20
yttrium. 21
(6) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 22
the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Di-23
rector of the United States Geological Survey. 24
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SEC. 3. MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH RE-1
SPECT TO THE MAPPING OF CRITICAL MIN-2
ERALS AND RARE EARTH ELEMENTS. 3
(a) M
EMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING.—The Sec-4
retary may enter into a memorandum of understanding 5
with 1 or more heads of agencies of partner foreign coun-6
tries with respect to scientific and technical cooperation 7
in the mapping of critical minerals and rare earth ele-8
ments. 9
(b) O
BJECTIVES.—In negotiating a memorandum of 10
understanding under subsection (a), the Secretary shall 11
seek to increase the security and resilience of international 12
supply chains for critical minerals and rare earth elements 13
by— 14
(1) committing to assisting the partner foreign 15
country through cooperative activities described in 16
subsection (c) that help the partner foreign country 17
map reserves of critical minerals and rare earth ele-18
ments; 19
(2) ensuring that private companies 20
headquartered in the United States or an allied for-21
eign country are offered the right of first refusal in 22
the further development of critical minerals and rare 23
earth elements in the partner foreign country; 24
(3) facilitating private-sector investment in the 25
exploration and development of critical minerals and 26
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rare earth elements, including by leveraging pref-1
erential financing from entities such as the United 2
States International Development Finance Corpora-3
tion and the Export-Import Bank of the United 4
States that prioritizes projects committed to proc-5
essing minerals in the United States or an allied for-6
eign country; and 7
(4) ensuring that mapping data created through 8
the cooperative activities described in subsection (c) 9
is protected against unauthorized access by, or dis-10
closure to, governmental or private entities based in 11
countries that are not— 12
(A) a party to the memorandum of under-13
standing; or 14
(B) an allied foreign country. 15
(c) C
OOPERATIVEACTIVITIES.—The cooperative ac-16
tivities referred to in subsection (b) include— 17
(1) acquisition, compilation, analysis, and inter-18
pretation of geologic, geophysical, geochemical, and 19
spectroscopic remote sensing data; 20
(2) prospectivity mapping and mineral resource 21
assessment; 22
(3) analysis of geoscience data, including devel-23
oping derivative map products that can help more 24
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effectively evaluate the mineral resources of the 1
partner foreign country; 2
(4) scientific collaboration to enhance the un-3
derstanding and management of the natural re-4
sources of the partner foreign country to contribute 5
to the sustainable development of the mineral re-6
sources sector of that partner foreign country; 7
(5) training and capacity building in each area 8
described in paragraphs (1) through (4); 9
(6) facilitation of education and specialized 10
training in geoscience and mineral resource manage-11
ment at institutions of higher education; 12
(7) training in relevant international standards 13
for relevant officials of the government and private 14
companies of the partner foreign country; and 15
(8) cooperation among entities of the partner 16
foreign country that are a party to the memorandum 17
of understanding and entities in the United States, 18
including Federal departments and agencies, institu-19
tions of higher education, research centers, and pri-20
vate companies. 21
(d) N
OTIFICATION TO CONGRESS.—The Secretary 22
shall notify Congress not later than 30 days before the 23
Secretary intends to enter into a memorandum of under-24
standing under subsection (a). 25
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(e) COLLABORATIONWITHSECRETARY OFSTATE.— 1
The Secretary shall collaborate with the Secretary of State 2
in— 3
(1) prioritizing and selecting partner foreign 4
countries with which to enter into a memorandum of 5
understanding under subsection (a); 6
(2) negotiating a memorandum of under-7
standing under subsection (a); and 8
(3) implementing a memorandum of under-9
standing entered into under subsection (a). 10
(f) C
ONSULTATIONWITHPRIVATESECTOR.—The 11
Secretary shall consult with relevant private sector actors, 12
as the Secretary determines to be appropriate, in— 13
(1) prioritizing and selecting partner foreign 14
countries with which to enter into a memorandum of 15
understanding under subsection (a); and 16
(2) assessing how a memorandum of under-17
standing can best facilitate private sector interest in 18
pursuing the further development of critical minerals 19
and rare earth elements in accordance with the ob-20
jectives described in subsection (b). 21
Æ
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