Mohamed Zeeshan

The View | China’s growing control of global minerals supply leaves the US in the dust

With Washington distracted by political crisis at home, Beijing has steadily invested in the inevitable shift away from fossil fuels towards green energy

China’s control of key minerals such as lithium and cobalt leaves the world with little option but to depend on it for at least the medium term

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A worker checks car batteries at a factory for Xinwangda Electric Vehicle Battery, which makes lithium batteries for electric cars and other uses, in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on March 21. Photo: Xinhua

Mohamed Zeeshan

Published: 6:45am, 1 Dec 2021

If oil was the buzzword of geopolitics in the previous century, the key to global influence in an era of climate change will lie elsewhere: minerals that power green technology.

In the run-up to the recent UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, the International Energy Agency pointed out that demand will shift from coal and fossil fuels to minerals such as lithium, cobalt and copper in the coming decades, as countries transition to green energy.

Minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel are integral to the construction of batteries, while rare earth elements such as neodymium are crucial to wind turbines and electric vehicles. As electricity replaces fossil fuels, copper and aluminium will take centre stage as well.

As a result, if the world is to meet its goal of keeping the rise in global temperatures to “well below 2 degrees Celsius”, as pledged in the Paris Agreement, the International Energy Agency estimates that demand for these minerals will increase hugely: for lithium, by as much as 40 times, while the market for graphite, cobalt and nickel will shoot up by around 20-25 times.

China is already investing towards this paradigm shift, particularly in parts of the world where the US is now at a disadvantage. While former US president Donald Trump spent his term in office trying to revive the domestic coal industry, China was busy building ties with power brokers that controlled strategic mineral reserves around the world.

The View | China’s growing control of global minerals supply leaves the US in the dust

With Washington distracted by political crisis at home, Beijing has steadily invested in the inevitable shift away from fossil fuels towards green energy China’s control of key minerals such as lithium and cobalt leaves the world with little option but to depend on it for at least the medium term