Assignment: The US Geological Survey publishes a list of Strategic Minerals ( https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/us-geological-survey-releases-2022-list-critical-minerals ). Having a secure supply of these minerals is essential to our security and economic prosperity. However many of these minerals are sourced from outside of the US. This assignment is to develop a reference catalog of the source or sources of each of these minerals and a judgment on the reliability of each source under stressed circumstance (e.g. war, economic crisis, etc.)

Notes:

You will need to identify a source or sources for each of the minerals in the 2022 List of Critical Minerals. You will need to categorize each source country as an ally, a competitor or a neutral party. You will need to develop data visualizations that tell the story of source dependency and shortfall impact. I want a maximum of 3 visualizations and two paragraphs overviewing the results. Use any visualization tool that you would like. :) This assignment is due at the end of week fourteen of the semester.

grouped_count <- reliance_100 %>%
  count(Country_Category) %>%
  arrange(desc(n))


ggplot(grouped_count, aes(x = reorder(Country_Category, n), y = n, fill = Country_Category)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity") +
  coord_flip() +
  labs(title = "Number of Minerals the US Depends on by Country Relationship (100% Reliance)",
       x = "Relationship Group",
       y = "Number of Minerals") +
  theme_minimal() +
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Ally" = "blue", "Competitor" = "red", "Neutral" = "gray"))

top_minerals <- expanded_reliance %>%
  arrange(Import_Share_Rank) %>%
  head(10)  


ggplot(top_minerals, aes(x = reorder(cleaned_commodity, Import_Share_Rank), 
                         y = Import_Share_Rank, 
                         fill = Country)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = "dodge") +
  coord_flip() +
  labs(title = "Top Minerals by Import Share Rank and Countries Supplying Them",
       x = "Mineral",
       y = "Import Share Rank",
       fill = "Country") +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(legend.position = "bottom") +
  scale_fill_brewer(palette = "Set3")

The charts reveals that a significant portion of the U.S.’s critical mineral supply is dependent on foreign sources, with a notable reliance on countries categorized as competitors or neutral. This reliance poses a risk to supply chain security, especially during times of geopolitical tension or economic crises. The visualizations highlight that while allies provide some of these resources, critical dependencies remain, particularly for minerals essential to technology and defense industries.

Addressing these vulnerabilities requires diversifying supply chains or increasing domestic production to mitigate risks. The graphs effectively illustrate which minerals are most at risk and which countries pose potential supply threats, emphasizing the need for strategic policies to ensure secure and reliable access to these essential resources.