Category: Critical Minerals
Italy, France and Germany to Lead EU Critical Materials Stockpiling Plan, Sources Say
By Pratima Desai and Julia Payne The European Union is pushing ahead with plans to stockpile critical materials, with Italy, France, and Germany set to take leading roles as the bloc moves to cut reliance on China, four sources with knowledge of the ...
Senators Push $70 Billion Funding Deal to Support Trump’s Critical Minerals Push, FT Reports
Senators will introduce legislation on Wednesday to reauthorize funding for the United States Export-Import Bank for the next decade, as lawmakers try to inject an extra $70 billion into the agency to support U.S. President Donald Trump's critical minerals push, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
China’s Push for Low-Carbon Metals Is Forcing a Reckoning in Indonesia’s Nickel Boom
By Muyi Yang and Dody Setiawan At the G20 Summit in late 2025, China unveiled the International Economic and Trade Cooperation Initiative on Green Mining and Minerals. While broader geopolitical headlines overshadowed this news, it carries crucial implications.
U.S. Targets China’s Dominance in Africa’s Critical Minerals With New Stockpile Plan
The United States is moving to build new stockpiles of critical minerals as part of an effort aimed at countering China’s dominance over supply chains that run through Africa and other parts of the Global South and underpin clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and defense industries. ...
Why Greenland is the New Front in the U.S.–China Resource Rivalry
By Lukas Fiala After a showcase of U.S. military might in Venezuela, the longstanding back-and-forth about a potential U.S. intervention in Greenland continues apace. With President Trump announcing earlier this week that the U.S. would acquire Greenland “one way or ...
China’s Rare Earths El Dorado Gives Strategic Edge
By Peter Catterall Buried in the reddish soil of southern China lies latent power: one of the largest clusters of critical rare earths is mined around the clock by a secretive, heavily guarded industry. The ...
Japan Targets Central Asia’s Critical Minerals in Bid to Reduce Reliance on China
Japan unveiled a five-year goal on Saturday for business projects totalling $19 billion in Central Asia as Tokyo vies for influence in the resource-rich region. The announcement came after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hosted an inaugural summit with the leaders of ...
How the U.S. Aims to Seize Control of Critical Congolese Minerals and Curb Chinese Expansion
By signing the strategic partnership agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United States achieved two key objectives in its critical minerals strategy: first, securing preferential access to copper, cobalt, zinc, gold, and other minerals considered strategic; and second, establishing a regulatory framework ...
Chile’s Election Puts China’s Lithium Ambitions to the Test
The Lithium Triangle is one of the most important geostrategic sectors in the Latin American landscape. Spanning through Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, the Lithium Triangle is home to between 60 to 75% of the earth’s known lithium reserves and is the centerpiece of the global energy ...
Why the U.S.-DRC Mining Deal is Bad News For China
The U.S. and the DR Congo signed a landmark deal on critical minerals during President Félix Tshisekedi's visit to the White House this week. The pact provides the U.S. with extraordinary access to the Congolese mining sector and is widely expected ...
German Foreign Minister to Visit China for Economic Talks
Germany's foreign minister heads to China this weekend for talks focused on tense economic ties between Europe and Beijing, particularly in the area of rare earths, Berlin said Friday. Johann Wadephul was originally supposed to pay his first visit to China ...
China Confronts the Limits of Its Critical Mineral Power
If you want to see where great-power competition is most visible today, look to the fast-growing world of critical minerals. What began as a technical supply-chain issue has become a central arena in which the United States and China are testing their industrial strength, geopolitical leverage, and ...