REGION.AMERICAS
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Geopolitical Mining Weekly | Week of 29 December 2025 – 4 January 2026
This week’s signals – a US$28.9bn licence arbitration in Guinea, Zambia opening mining tax payments to the yuan, first anodes from the Kamoa–Kakula smelter in the DRC, a strike at Chile’s Mantoverde mine and the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela – all point in the same direction: critical minerals and energy are now governed…
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Geopolitical Mining Weekly | Week of 22–28 December 2025
States are tightening control over who can mine, process and export critical minerals, from the DRC’s suspension of artisanal cobalt, to China’s crackdown on illegal mining, Chile’s Codelco–SQM lithium venture in Atacama and copper ending the year near record highs, signalling that future supply will be shaped as much by governance and state-led structures as…
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Geopolitical Mining Weekly | Week of 15–21 December 2025
This week’s moves, Canada’s “One Project, One Review” shift, falling Chinese rare earth magnet exports to the US, a Korean proxy fight around a US$7.4bn zinc smelter, and copper flirting with US$12,000/t , all point in the same direction: permits, magnets and midstream capacity are now as decisive as geology in shaping critical minerals risk…
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China’s Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean: Systems and Strategic Positioning
China’s 2025 Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean does not just offer more trade and infrastructure. It embeds LAC into Beijing’s long term system for energy, resources, finance and technology. This article examines what that framing means for mining, critical minerals and bargaining power in the region.
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For the U.S., Minerals Are Now Geopolitics
In recent weeks, the U.S. has decisively reframed critical minerals as strategic inputs rather than commodities governed solely by global price curves. With direct state participation in key refining assets, like the $7.4B Tennessee smelter, Washington is explicitly underwriting strategic continuity, signaling a fundamental shift from market leadership to geopolitical sufficiency.
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Chile with Kast: signals for copper, lithium, rare earths and Codelco
Chile with Kast enters a new phase: a record mining pipeline, a faster but untested permitting system and renewed geopolitical pressure around copper, lithium and rare earths. This article unpacks what the election really signals for Codelco, lithium policy and project approvals over the next decade.
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Geopolitical Mining Weekly | Week of 8–14 December 2025
This week’s strategic moves, the U.S.led Pax Silica coalition, expanded G7 critical minerals dialogue, Bolivia’s lithium pivot toward Western investment, Greenland’s EU backed graphite project, and BMC Minerals’ choice to list on Australia’s ASX over Toronto, underscore a decisive shift, critical minerals and their supply chains are now explicitly structured around geopolitical alignment, integrated value…
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For China, Minerals Were, Are and Will Always Be Strategic
For China, minerals have always been strategic, today they sit at the core of its vision of technological power and national security. This piece explains how Beijing built its dominance in critical minerals and why that matters for geopolitical mining in the coming decade.
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Geopolitical Mining Weekly | Week of 1 – 7 December 2025
This week’s moves, from Africa’s commodity alliances and Europe’s integrated lithium strategy, to Chile’s smelter intent and U.S.–EU strategic shifts, confirm critical minerals as core geopolitical assets, reshaping global supply chains and investment priorities.
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RESourceEU: Is Europe finally moving beyond form on critical minerals?
With RESourceEU, Brussels is trying to turn the Critical Raw Materials Act into operational reality: finance, joint purchasing, stockpiling, a new Raw Materials Centre. Our analysis looks at what is genuinely new, what remains form rather than substance, and why Europe’s invisible block around mining still matters.