I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 981 

To direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a global rare earth element 

assessment, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 6, 2013 

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia (for himself and Mr. MARKEY) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a global 

rare earth element assessment, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Resource Assessment 

5 of Rare Earths Act of 2013’’ or the ‘‘RARE Act of 2013’’. 

6 SEC. 2. GLOBAL RARE EARTH ELEMENT RESOURCE AS7 SESSMENT. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 years after the 

9 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Inte10 rior, acting through the Director of the United States GeoVerDate Mar 15 2010 05:55 Mar 07, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H981.IH H981

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1 logical Survey and in coordination with the heads of na2 tional geological surveys where available, shall submit to 

3 the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Rep4 resentatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural 

5 Resources of the Senate a comprehensive report on global 

6 rare earth element resources and potential future global 

7 supply. Such report shall use the best available data and 

8 include— 

9 (1) the identity and quantity of individual rare 

10 earth elements in known deposits; 

11 (2) models demonstrating the geologic condi12 tions necessary for the formation, and the variability 

13 in composition, of the most significant deposits of 

14 rare earth elements; 

15 (3) regional assessments of the likelihood of oc16 currence of undiscovered deposits and an estimate of 

17 the quantity of rare earth elements thought to be 

18 present; 

19 (4) recommendations, developed in consultation 

20 with other appropriate agencies, on areas of need for 

21 future geologic research related to— 

22 (A) rare earth elements; and 

23 (B) other minerals that are critical based 

24 on the impact of a potential supply restriction 

25 and the likelihood of a supply restriction; and 


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1 (5) analysis, developed with participation by the 

2 National Minerals Information Center and in con3 sultation with appropriate agencies, of the rare earth 

4 elements supply chain and associated processes and 

5 products, including mining, processing, separation, 

6 metal production, alloy production, and manufac7 turing of products sold to end users. 

8 (b) RARE EARTH ELEMENT.—In this section the 

9 term ‘‘rare earth element’’ means— 

10 (1) any element in the lanthanides group of ele11 ments, which consists of lanthanum, cerium, praseo12 dymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, euro13 pium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, 

14 erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium; 

15 (2) yttrium; and 

16 (3) scandium. 

17 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

18 authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of the Inte19 rior to carry out this section $10,000,000 for the period 

20 of fiscal years 2014 through 2016. 

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