Are Critical Minerals The New Oil?

That’s the question explored by a recent Forum white paper exploring the energy transition and geopolitics. Critical minerals such as lithium and copper are vital to many net-zero technologies, as the graphic below shows.

The world is likely to become more dependent on these minerals and less dependent on fossil fuels, such as oil and gas. With demand soaring and raw and processed critical materials overly concentrated in a handful of countries, what will this shift mean for geopolitics, energy and the environment?

The Forum paper attempts to provide an initial framework for answering this question, arguing that while most concerns around critical minerals have focused on supply, the most important factors driving potential scarcity in the market relate to demand.

The report highlights a range of policy initiatives to help, including recommending a measure to help markets operate more effectively and being more transparent around data.