Today’s geopolitical issues are accelerating the race for critical and strategic minerals (CSMs). Over the past twenty years, protective measures in the mining sector have increased fivefold. Currently, China’s near-monopoly in the production and transformation of CSMs means that it can influence world market prices to its advantage, further strengthening its dominant position. This affects the availability of substances needed to develop technologies involved in the energy transition, the IT sector and the defense industry.
China’s control therefore impacts the development of North American mining projects and their integration into emerging value chains such as batteries, hydrogen and microprocessors. CSM mining and transformation projects outside China are fragile and sensitive to market fluctuations, which considerably slows the pace of their development.
In this context, a good understanding of market dynamics and evolution is essential. In addition, the question arises as to how to protect these emerging markets from artificial market fluctuations induced, in particular, by the Chinese monopoly?