Critical Minerals
Mineral level analysis on supply chains, processing capacity, geopolitical leverage and strategic demand.
Materials. Power. Industrial strategy.
Focused analysis on the minerals shaping the material foundations of energy systems, artificial intelligence, defense, infrastructure and advanced manufacturing. This section examines how individual minerals move from geology to strategy through extraction, processing, trade, capital, technology and legitimacy.
Latest critical minerals analysis
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Chromium and the Return of the Material Economy
Chromium shows why the return of industrial policy requires a broader understanding of minerals. Its contribution to stainless steel, durable infrastructure and industrial performance connects everyday material functions…
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Profit Without Cash: What Codelco’s US$2.4 Billion Capitalisation Really Means
Chile is allowing Codelco to retain all its 2025 earnings, but most of the profit came from a noncash lithium valuation. The decision protects the balance sheet rather…
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The Lithium Processing Paradox
Australia’s lithium experience reveals a central paradox of critical mineral strategy: processing can be strategically necessary before it is commercially easy. A world class mine does not automatically…
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Codelco, Collahuasi and Technical Governance in Chilean Copper
Chile’s copper leadership shift at Codelco and Collahuasi is more than an executive succession. It reveals why technical governance, operational discipline and institutional maturity are becoming central to…
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Rare Earths Are Becoming a Talent War
Rare earths are becoming a talent war. Deposits matter, but reliable supply depends on the engineers, metallurgists, laboratories, public agencies and industrial systems able to convert mineral potential…
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Rare Earths: The US Treasury, Baotou and Crucible
The US Treasury’s G7+ finance meeting, Korea Zinc’s Crucible smelter in Tennessee, and China’s new Baotou rare earth price index are three pieces of the same story: Washington…
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