Clean energy systems require critical minerals. There are five core critical minerals, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA): copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel, graphite and rare earths. But there are many others, such as arsenic, bismuth, gallium, germanium, hafnium, magnesium, manganese, niobium, platinum group metals, tantalum, tungsten and vanadium, all of which play different roles in energy tech.
The places on Earth where there are mineral-rich ore deposits that are ‘economically viable’ to mine are becoming increasingly important as countries move away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy, and increasingly advanced tech is created. As the chart above shows, China is a dominant player in the production of critical minerals, producing more than half of the world’s gallium, magnesium, tungsten, bismuth, graphite, rare earths and vanadium. Of the 18 minerals in the chart, South Africa is a major producer of platinum and palladium as well as manganese.
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