The battle has begun for the next frontier of the industrial revolution, mineral rights. Mineral rights for specific minerals will be the driving force in the next level of the information and transportation revolution.
Were you aware that there has been a 500 to 600% jump in minerals needed for batteries? I was surprised.
The need will continue. Production of battery metals such as graphite, lithium and cobalt will have to increase by nearly 500% by 2050 to meet the growing demand for clean energy technologies, the World Bank reported.
The nations of the world where theses minerals are readily available will have advantages, all others will not.
The country with the largest volume of graphite reserves in the world is Turkey. In 2020, they had approximately 90 million metric tons of natural graphite reserves.
So far, the world has an identified lithium reserves of 80 million tonnes, of which the highest deposits are in Bolivia, followed by Argentina, Chile and the United States.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world’s largest producer of cobalt by far, with its output reaching 95,000 tonnes last year — almost 60 percent of global supply.
The balance of power may shift throughout the world.