Australia is leading an effort to break China’s critical-minerals monopoly
was weaponised by its suppliers in the 1970s, so China’s dominance in the supply and processing of critical minerals could prove threatening. Cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel, the rare earths and more are called critical for good reason. They are crucial to defence, smartphones and other digital technologies. A handful are essential to wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles. A clean-energy future is inconceivable without them.
Mineral-related initiatives come thick and fast. China’s dominance, says Australia’s resources minister, Madeleine King, is a “strategic challenge”. On June 20th her government unveiled a critical-minerals strategy to address it. Australia is the biggest producer of lithium, the third-biggest producer of cobalt and fourth-biggest of rare earths—yet a processing minnow. It aims to become, by 2030, “a globally significant” producer of processed critical minerals.
South Korea, with global ambitions for electric vehicles and batteries, looks especially vulnerable to competition between America and China on this issues. As part of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s commitment to “comprehensive resource-security measures”, his government earlier this year released a plan to secure critical-mineral supplies. The aim is to cut the country’s import dependency on China from 80% to 50% by 2030 and to increase its use of recycled minerals, from 2% to 20% of the total.
The pandemic caused others to wake up to the perils of a monopoly processor, by underscoring the vulnerability of supply chains generally. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine further highlighted the risks of doing business with a potential enemy. By withholding supplies of gas to European customers, Russia sought to weaponise a crucial commodity.
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