Critical Minerals

We all value and depend on our gadgets and the technology inside them. Clean energy innovations from solar panels to camp stoves incorporate critical minerals that are mined and extracted from the Earth, often in countries with poor and limited environmental, equity, and workplace standards.

There are considerable geopolitical issues when 100% of indium is mined from foreign sources, a key extractive resource for manufacturing solar panels. And 80% of cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 60% of all lithium is sourced from China, two key ingredients required for manufacturing batteries.

Competition between open and closed societies is about who will control global economic sectors and exert influence in the 21st century. It is a tug-of-war between countries with democratic, free market values and those with authoritarian values.