Critical minerals are nonfuel mineral commodities that are essential to the economic and national security of the U.S. and are from a supply chain that is vulnerable to global and national disruption; most critical minerals are imported. The USGS, DOE, and DOW established a list of critical minerals in 2019 and revises that list every few years. Currently 60 elements are considered critical minerals. New Mexico's mineral wealth is among the richest endowments of any state in the U.S. and has historically produced significant amounts (>$1,700,000,000 total production) of coal, copper, potash, uranium, silver and other critical minerals since the 1800s. Some are still mined in the state today and others could become important in the future. Understanding the resource potential of critical minerals is important not only for encouraging mineral exploration and inclusion in a national assessment of critical minerals, but mineral resources must be identified before land exchanges, withdrawals or other land-use decisions are made by government officials. The NMBGMR, in cooperation with the USGS (Earth Mapping Resources Initiative program) and the DOE (CORE-CM project), are examining the potential for critical minerals in New Mexico. More than 12 million short tons of copper have been produced from porphyry copper mineral systems in New Mexico since 1804, along with significant amounts of gold, silver, and molybdenum. The copper deposits have potential for various critical minerals, including lead, zinc, bismuth, cobalt, and REE that are found as separate minerals, micro-inclusions and/or in solid solution in sulfide minerals. Potash is produced from the Carlsbad district. The most significant uranium deposits in New Mexico are sandstone-hosted deposits, where ~340 million pounds of U₃O₈ and ~9076 pounds of V₂O₅ were produced from 1950 to 2002; some deposits contain elevated heavy REE. Some New Mexico coal ash contains as much as 2000 ppm total REE. Exploration permits filed with the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department indicate that companies are exploring for critical minerals including copper, potash, REE, barite, fluorite, high-Mg dolomite, and lithium. Future mining of potential critical and other mineral deposits will directly benefit the economy of New Mexico. Another aspect of these projects is the training of our future workforce at New Mexico Tech since students are hired to work on these projects.