Articles & essays
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Davos 2026 | Sixth Axis of Analysis. Fink and Musk: Legitimacy, AI and the Clock of Execution
Larry Fink and Elon Musk frame AI as both a technological leap and a system stress test, highlighting the clash between the exponential clock of technology and the slower clock of institutions, and showing why the next geopolitical cycle will be decided in the ability to deploy energy, infrastructure and fair distribution at scale.
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Davos 2026: Coordinates of the New Geopolitical Era
Geopolitical reading of Davos 2026: from the financial cycle to a new industrial and material era. Reindustrialization, middle class, legitimacy, sovereignty of speed, AI, energy transition and mineral supply chains seen through the lens of geopolitical mining and a redefined social contract.
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Future Minerals Forum 2026: Reputation, Governance and the New Architecture of Mining
The Future Minerals Forum 2026 in Riyadh brought together over 100 countries, multilaterals and industry leaders to talk about critical minerals, infrastructure and standards. Beyond the headlines, this edition introduced the Future Minerals Barometer, a standing ministerial steering group and a corridor agenda with the World Bank. Paired with a frank debate on mining’s reputation,…
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The Cost of Time in Mining.
A five year permitting delay can erase a third of a mining project’s value, without changing the orebody, the plan, or the metal. Time is not neutral. It’s the hidden variable rewriting copper, lithium and nickel economics.
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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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When Security Joins ESG: How the U.S. NSS Could Reshape Lending to Mining
For a decade, ESG has been the main external filter for mining finance. America’s 2025 National Security Strategy quietly adds a second one: strategic alignment. This article explores how that twin filter could change lending criteria for U.S. and European financiers in critical minerals.
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The West knows it is vulnerable on critical minerals. Does it really understand what that implies?
The West knows it is vulnerable in critical minerals, but still behaves as if subsidies, alliances and new lists will be enough. This article argues that the deeper risk lies inside Western systems themselves, in how they regulate, narrate and politically absorb mining and why that matters in the first technological revolution.
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Are We in the Fifth Industrial Revolution or the First Technological Revolution?
A strategic essay exploring whether we are living through a Fifth Industrial Revolution or the first fully technological revolution and why the answer reshapes how we understand power, capital and the critical minerals that underpin AI, clean energy and advanced manufacturing.
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The Mining We Knew Is Dead. Long Live Geopolitical Mining
Strategic essay on how critical minerals became geopolitical power. This piece connects recent export controls, China’s midstream dominance, and Western vulnerabilities to explain why mining is no longer industrial, it’s Geopolitical Mining