• 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.

  • Artificial Geysers Can Compensate for Our Mineral Shortages

    By imitating nature, it may be possible to recover seabed minerals by extracting hot water from the Earth’s crust. We can harvest green energy and be sensitive to the environment – all at the same time.

  • Critical Minerals Need Insulation from China’s Market Manipulation

    Investors can handle lots of different risks. They can price risks in construction, interest rates, weather and, with hedging, price movements in product markets. But the one risk they can’t price is political risk, the chance of some government action ruining profits. You can’t hedge against it.

  • A More Efficient Way to Extract Lithium from Mining Sites, Oil Fields, Used Batteries

    Lithium is a lightweight metal commonly used in energy-dense and rechargeable batteries. Electric vehicles, which are needed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, rely on lithium-ion batteries. Chemists have invented a more efficient way to extract lithium from waste liquids leached from mining sites, oil fields and used batteries.

  • Southeast Asia’s Potential in Critical Minerals

    Global critical mineral demand is expected to increase dramatically in coming decades, from a 7.1 million tons in 2020 to 42.3 million tons in 2050. All manner of sophisticated industries, including defense manufacturing, will also compete for these materials. Southeast Asia has significant natural reserves of several key critical minerals, including nickel, tin, rare-earth elements (REEs) and bauxite, and the region is still not fully explored for more of them.

  • OPEN Program Seeks to Prove Technology Capability for Global Critical Materials Market Transparency

    Transparency in critical materials markets is essential to ensuring readiness and to the national security of the United States. It’s also vital to protecting consumers and businesses from the economic costs that stem from supply chain disruptions. DARPA effort selects companies to develop technology for critical commodity pricing, supply, and demand forecasting.

  • Critical Minerals in Africa: Strengthening Security, Supporting Development, and Reducing Conflict amid Geopolitical Competition

    US economic and national security depends on a reliable supply of critical minerals that underlie an array of products and services important to ever-changing modern economies. Yet for many critical minerals (e.g., cobalt, graphite, and manganese), the United States is heavily dependent on imports. Especially concerning is that the United States is at or near 100 percent reliant on “foreign entities of concern”—mainly the People’s Republic of China—for key critical minerals. Africa can play an important role in strengthening US critical minerals supply chain security.

  • U.S. to Tap Domestic Lithium Supply Without Chinese Products

    Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a record conditional loan of $2.26 billion to tap the largest known lithium reserves in North America. The loan is an important step in an effort by the U.S. government to reduce reliance on China for the metal used to make batteries.