We can expect “continued instability” and “repeated supply chain shocks” ahead, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde just told us at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Fourteen critical minerals" are essential to fuel the clean economy and growth across many sectors, Lagarde said. She added that, “Europe relies on China for 98 percent of this supply.” That must mean imports from China as well as the extraordinary number of Chinese mining and trading companies exploiting critical minerals and rare earth metals in Africa.
The point is inescapable. Minerals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese and rare earth metals needed for cell phones, wind turbines, electric vehicles, electricity networks, and across agriculture, construction, technology, and national defense sectors already comprise economic battlefields and will likely generate military tensions, too - especially involving the United States, China, and proxies. As a result, critical minerals and rare earth metals will take their place with oil and gas both as causes and spoils of war.
