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Critical Minerals Weekly Digest: Global Supply Chains Reshaped by Tariffs, Bilateral Deals, and Strategic R&D

This is a free preview of the upcoming Critical Minerals Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in Summer 2025. Global critical mineral markets this week reflected the mounting intersection of geopolitics, industrial policy, and resource nationalism. China ...

In Zimbabwe, China’s EV Mineral Hunt Sparks Both Hope and Unease

When Chinese battery materials giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt acquired the Arcadia Lithium Mine for $422 million in 2021, Zimbabwe saw an opportunity to claim its share in the global electric vehicle supply chain table. Located 38 kilometers east of Harare, the project was billed as a ...

Critical Minerals Weekly Digest

This is a free preview of the upcoming Critical Minerals Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in Summer 2025. This week’s developments underscore a clear shift in the critical minerals landscape, from fragmented exploration to full-spectrum geopolitical ...

China Corners the Market on a Little-Known but Crucial Tech Mineral

A Chinese mining and materials giant, Sinomine Resource Group, is ramping up its dominance in the critical minerals sector, with a $400 million investment in Zimbabwe for the construction of the world’s second cesium smelting plant.   The move positions Sinomine ...

Q&A: What Lessons Can Zimbabwe Learn From Indonesia in Its Quest to Move up the Lithium Value Chain?

Indonesia is often cited as a model for countries seeking to extract more value from their mineral wealth. This is because Jakarta was a pioneer in using export bans to compel investors to invest in the value-added processing of the resource before export. In 2020, Indonesia banned ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Plugging into African Agency

After several years of declining funding, the African end of the Belt and Road Initiative seems to be roaring back. The newest Griffith University/Green Development Finance Center data on the Belt and Road Initiative shows that engagement with Africa jumped by 395%, while a few big projects boosted engagement in Nigeria alone more than twelvefold.
These shifts indicate a window of opportunity for African electrification. 60% of Africans still ...

China’s Copper Smelting Boom Backfires Amid Global Supply Strains

Over the past decade, China positioned itself as a leader in copper refining, accounting for more than half of global capacity. Its strategy designed to secure control over key critical minerals meant to power everything from clean energy grids to electric vehicles, defense equipment, and construction ...

Lithium Prices Are Crashing, But Some Producers Are Doubling Down. Why?

There is a puzzling shift unfolding in the global lithium market. Prices have collapsed by over 70% from their 2022 highs to around $12,000 per tonne, and yet, against all market logic, some Chinese lithium giants are not retreating.  Instead, ...

China’s Critical Minerals Lead Widens as Rivals Struggle to Keep Pace

Despite growing talk of securing alternative supply chains, China has entrenched itself as the world’s undisputed leader in critical minerals, widening a lead that few anticipated would stretch so far, so fast. From lithium to nickel to rare earths, China’s ...

Can Africa Move Up the Critical Mineral Value Chain? The Hard Truth Behind a Familiar Chorus

As China opens its doors wider to African exports, extending duty-free market access to all 53 diplomatic partners on the continent, the announcement was met with applause in ministerial corridors from Nairobi to Niamey. For many, the new policy represents another chance for Africa to claim ...

Critical Minerals Weekly: China’s Rare Earth Reset, Copper Overcapacity, and Zimbabwe’s Big Lithium Gamble

This is a free preview of the upcoming Critical Minerals Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in Summer 2025. After months of strategic restrictions, China has agreed to resume rare earth exports to the U.S. as ...

Critical Minerals Weekly: China’s Rare Earth Curbs, EV Delays, and Global Supply Chain Scramble

This is a free preview edition of the new Critical Minerals Weekly Digest that will be available to subscribers of the new CGSP Intelligence service that will launch during the Summer of 2025. Topline Insight

Europe’s Green Mining Regulations May Push Africa Closer to China

While Europe’s environmental policy to limit carbon emissions is well-meaning and aims to fight climate change, it could actually make things worse for Africa. Instead of helping the continent to develop its industries, EU policy might instead give China more control over access to valuable mineral resources, ...
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