Tag: CriticalMinerals
The New Resource Wars Have Already Begun
For much of the twentieth century, control over oil shaped alliances, wars and global trade. The twenty-first century is increasingly being defined by a different set of strategic resources. Cobalt, lithium, graphite and rare earth elements have become indispensable for manufacturing electric vehicles, semiconductors, drones, precision-guided missiles and advanced military…
Civil Wars Are Becoming Battles for Critical Minerals
The world's race to secure critical minerals is changing the geography of civil wars. Deposits of rare earths, coltan, gold and uranium are no longer merely sources of wartime revenue; they are becoming strategic assets whose control affects military supply chains, industrial policy and competition between major powers. As governments…
Congo Cobalt Likely Carried Uranium Into China
Between 2,000 and 5,000 metric tonnes of natural uranium may have left the Democratic Republic of Congo inside cobalt-hydroxide exports between 2000 and 2024, according to a peer-reviewed study published in Nature Communications by Princeton and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers. That quantity could fuel a light-water reactor for 10 to…
