RARE earth and critical minerals are the newest arena of competition between the big powers. While China dominates the global supply of these minerals, the US is trying to catch up by rushing to strike mineral resources deals with several countries and taking other initiatives.
Over the decades, China built a near-monopoly in the extraction and processing capacity of rare earth minerals, which are used in electronics, electric cars, radars and military weapon systems. Last year, President Donald Trump saw how China pushed back against his tariffs by imposing curbs on exports of rare earth minerals. This threatened US industry and forced Washington to back down. He has since stepped up efforts to reduce dependence on China by seeking to develop alternate sources of supply and make new investments. His stated aim to seize Greenland is mostly driven by this.
Trump has also announced the establishment of a strategic critical-minerals stockpile, named ‘Project Vault’ worth $12 billion, in an effort to reduce the risk to manufacturers from supply disruptions, while his administration tries to deal with China’s dominance in rare earths and other metals. Last week, Washington hosted a critical minerals ministerial to which delegations from 50 countries were invited with the aim of forming a preferential trade bloc and seeking collaboration to diversify supply chains.
An insightful new book describes how China came to establish its ascendancy in the batteries sector by making strategic investments much earlier, while the US focused on oil and the technologies of the past. The Elements of Power by journalist Nicolas Niarchos is a fascinating tour de force of the development of the battery industry, evolution of the demand for lithium and cobalt, the scientific advances that were made and who profited from all of this. His story about the ‘age of batteries’ focuses on its innovative aspects, companies that spearheaded technological progress and the geopolitical implications. But it exposes its perils and moral dilemmas as well. For him, this is also a tragic saga “whose protagonists are some of the poorest people in the world” exploited by wealthy countries and predatory companies.
The global competition for critical minerals and metals is set to intensify.
The 20th century, Niarchos says, was powered by oil. But lithium-ion batteries make the modern world possible, being the “foot soldiers of the digital revolution”. They make powerful tech available for every aspect of life, powering cellphones, laptops, medical devices, electric vehicles, drones and jet engines among other things. The metals and materials that go into these batteries come from countries across the world.
He argues that understanding these batteries and how they are made are key to understanding how a new form of power is being created, “one that is measurable in dollars, strategic influence and volts”. He reminds the reader that 70 to 90 per cent of lithium-ion batteries are made in China. And “as with oil, battery power has become political power”. Indeed, the acquisition of critical minerals is driving geostrategic shifts and competition for resources not seen since the time of the Cold War.
Several chapters delve into the colonial history of exploitation and scramble for resources by powerful outsiders. Much of the book’s focus is on the Democratic Republic of Congo, which possesses around half of the world’s supply of metals. Faced with exploitation, conflict, corruption, intrigue and the miserable conditions in which miners work, its people live in poverty while others in far-off lands benefit and enrich themselves from the country’s mineral resources. This highlights a key theme of the book — how rich countries use these resources for their green energy transition (as they produce no emissions) to get away from reliance on fossil fuels and find an answer to climate change. But it comes at the expense of environmental damage and abuses, including child labour, where these resources are mined. As the author puts it, at the bottom of the supply chain “people have toiled in squalid conditions, in poverty and human bondage to extract the minerals needed to make these batteries”.
The chapters on how China achieved major milestones in the development of the battery industry are particularly insightful. They zero in on how Chinese companies such as BYD succeeded in producing devices to store power. The country’s production of electric vehicles surged by leaps and bounds. By 2024, it was able to produce a million cars in a single month. Describing Chinese investment activity in Africa, Niarchos highlights the surge in its investments by the early 2010s. This filled a void left by the US and Europe who myopically gave the continent the cold shoulder. Meanwhile in 2023, China’s CATL became the world’s largest producer of lithium-ion batteries.
Niarchos notes that Washington, a late starter with modest investment, began to take serious interest after Trump’s return to power. He appointed his daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law, Massad Boulos, as senior adviser for Africa. Although his book doesn’t cover this, one of Trump’s major initiatives is Pax Silica. This is designed to build reliable supply chains for technologies needed for AI, especially silicon and critical minerals. While trying to boost domestic production aided by state intervention and capital, Trump has sought bilateral deals with many countries to gain access to resources.
For Niarchos it is important to address the moral dilemma concerning the detrimental effects of the new ‘energy revolution’. There is no easy answer to this, but he argues that investing in environmentally responsible mining should be encouraged to meet climate goals. Above all, it is necessary to listen to the people from whose land minerals are acquired, to their needs, pollution concerns and aspirations for a better, healthier world. “Such people,” he writes, “are commonly erased thanks to big-stakes financial dealings and complex, often deadly geopolitical games in the cutthroat competition of resources.”
He is, of course, right. But whether or not this message of his book reaches the corridors of power of big countries and is ever acted upon is an open question. What is certain, however, is that the global competition and battle for mineral resources is set to intensify.
The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.
Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2026
