• The Energy Transition Is Affecting Attitudes Towards Mining

    A survey finds the growing demand for critical minerals to support renewable energy is increasing public acceptance of mining in Australia. It also highlights that trust is a precious commodity.

  • China’s Critical Mineral Strategy Goes Beyond Geopolitics

    China dominates critical mineral refining but faces its own supply vulnerabilities, highlighting the complexity of global dependencies. A national strategy seeks to balance a focus of robust industrial policy on critical minerals while fostering international cooperation. A balanced approach involving China in global frameworks can reduce geopolitical tensions and foster sustainable supply chain solutions.

  • Guidance for Critical Minerals Policy from ASPI’s Darwin Dialogue 2024

    Critical minerals are a focal point of international contention in an increasingly fracturing international system. These minerals underlie competition across civil and defense sectors and promise economic opportunity throughout their supply chain.

  • Bans on Gallium n Germanium Exports Could Cost the U.S. Billions

    The disruptions of critical mineral supplies would negatively affect the U.S. economy. Researchers estimate there could be a $3.4 billion decrease in U.S. GDP if China implements a total ban on exports of gallium and germanium, minerals used in some semiconductors and other high-tech manufacturing.

  • Startup Turns Mining Waste into Critical Metals for the U.S.

    At the heart of the energy transition is a metal transition. Wind farms, solar panels, and electric cars require more exotic metals with unique properties, known as rare earth elements. Phoenix Tailings is creating domestic supply chains for rare earth metals, key to the clean energy transition.

  • Major Lithium Mine Approved in Nevada, Supporting a Domestic Supply of Critical Minerals 

    Critical minerals are essential building blocks of the modern economy and America’s energy security, from clean energy technologies – like electric vehicle and grid storage batteries and wind turbines – to semiconductors to advanced defense systems and consumer electronics.

  • Work Toward a Cleaner Way to Purify Critical Metals

    Rare-earth elements are everywhere in modern life. However, purifying these critical metals from ores with complex mixtures is a nasty business involving strong acids and hazardous solvents, and is primarily conducted in China. Sandia team studies selective sponges for rare-earth elements.

  • Insights on Valuable Byproduct Minerals

    Byproduct minerals are not the main target of the mining operation but are obtained as a result of processing the primary ore. Many critical minerals are byproducts of mining other minerals like copper, gold, and zinc.

  • Not Just Beijing’s Doing: Market Factors Are Also Hitting Rare Earths Prices

    Have depressed rare earths prices been engineered by the Chinese state to snuff out non-Chinese rivals before they get going? Or do they simply reflect a weak market, with demand rising more slowly than was expected by the promotors of a slew of new projects?

  • Quantifying Global Earthquake Risk to Mineral Supplies

    Earthquakes could impact the supplies of mineral commodities like copper and rhenium around the world. A new scientific mechanism for assessing the potential risk to worldwide mineral commodity supplies from seismic activity has been developed by USGS scientists.

  • A $40B Critical Mineral Supply Chain Could Start in Pennsylvania

    Pennsylvania has a mine pollution problem. America has a critical mineral shortage. And both problems may get solved as researchers find these critical and strategic elements in the polluted waters that come from acid mine drainage.

  • Critical Minerals: The Quiet Achievers Gallium and Germanium

    Australia produces 14 of the 31 critical minerals essential for modern technology and renewable energy. Gallium and germanium, critical for high-tech applications, are by-products of processing other minerals. Strategic mineral management and advanced processing can significantly boost Australia’s economic and global market position.

  • Countering Coercion: Australia Must Engage with Allies on Critical Minerals Supply

    China’s use of coercion to control critical mineral mining and processing projects, their output and even whole supply chains has motivated several countries to take increasingly strong measures to secure alternative supply chains. Meanwhile, China’s state-linked companies continue to use multiple channels to manipulate markets at scale.

  • Can Europe Secure Its Own Critical Raw Materials?

    With the EU’s Critical Raw Materials’ Act coming into force, the 27-nation bloc is looking to diversify its supplies of minerals away from China. But can it source enough of it at competitive prices?

  • China’s Control and Coercion in Critical Minerals

    Markets for critical minerals are no longer shaping up to be the next components of the global economy to be dominated by China. They already are. While Western nations were sleeping, China built vertically integrated supply chains for several critical minerals vital to the energy transition and high technology applications, including defense equipment.