The US v China: critical minerals race | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the global news podcast on. YouTube where we get behind the. headlines and focus on just one story. and today that story is what some call. the mineral wars that are reshaping. global politics. More than 50 countries. are meeting in America to try to rest. control of this market away from China. These minerals go in everything from. smartphones to fridges and I'm joined. today by the BBC's business reporter. Jonathan Josephs who's been following.

the story. Jonathan, what are we talking about here? What are. these minerals? >> This is a group of raw materials that. are seen as absolutely vital for the. global economy. The future depends on. them. They're used for all sorts of. things. A lot of it's to do with. electronics and renewable energy storage. of that, the creation of that is one of. the big driving factors why we need so. much more of it now. If you think about perhaps a smartphone, that has. a couple of grams maybe of lithium, but.

a battery for a an electric vehicle will. have several kilograms, so thousands of. times more. And this is all driving a huge increase. in demand for lithium. And that's just one of these minerals. There's a group of 20 that the. International Energy Agency are now. tracking in a lot more detail. They're. trying to make sure that there is enough. to go round. I mean, other applications. for these things are you know, you might. find them in wind turbines, in solar. panels, in the aerospace industry, in a.

jet engine perhaps, in defense the. defense industry uses them for all sorts. of weapons and they have rather unique. chemical properties, which is why they. are so important. It's in terms of the. way they conduct electricity or perhaps. the heat resistance that they offer. Other important uses are in terms of. computer chips, so that means they're. very important for artificial. intelligence and data centers which are. growing exponentially. And all of this means demand is surging,

and there are questions about where it's. all going to come from. >> And I I always hear that those words. rare earths. It It sounds like they're. not all rare earths. These are This is a. broader gamut of stuff, right? >> Right. So, rare earths is a group of 17. particular substances. which are particularly sought after. They make They've They've. had a lot of headlines about them in in. over the last year or two because of. their importance in geopolitical. discussions, the US-China trade war in.

particular. China has implemented export. controls on some of those, and also on. some of the other minerals that we're. talking about here. And the rare earths in particular are. are very hard to replace in terms of. these processes, in terms of where where. you're using them in these electronics, these weapons, whatever it is. Um and they're also particularly. expensive and difficult to get a hold. of. Although they are kind of common. more common than the rare earth name.

suggests, finding them in sufficient. quantities to make it economically. viable to mine them, and then to refine. them, turn them into usable substances, that's much more difficult. And that's. where they sort of get this moniker of. rare earths from. >> Right. And you've been talking to the. International Energy Agency, the IEA. What did What did they tell you? Is it. Have we Have we got a problem here? >> Well, [clears throat] they certainly are. concerned about where these supplies are. going to come from. These critical. minerals have become so important, it's.

now created a new. um division to keep track of them. And. I've been speaking to the head of that. division. He told me that the demand for. these critical minerals i- i- i- is such. a problem that there are growing. questions about where the supplies can. keep up with that rising demand. And that he's also concerned about. how diverse the source these these are. coming from. Is the supply chain. resilient? Because China controls 19 out. of 20 of the critical minerals that they. are paying particular attention to. And.

we've seen, as we saw as we did last. year, the export controls that they put. in place, that China is prepared to use. them as leverage in its wider. geopolitical ambitions. So, there is. concern. And so, if you think about it. from perhaps a business perspective, most businesses wouldn't operate in this. way where. where one particular supplier, in this. case China, has such a dominance. >> Why have they come to this position. where they just have so much control? >> Yeah, China has been thinking about this.

for a long time, Keith. I mean, this. goes back to the 1980s. It was 1987, in. fact, I think when Deng Xiaoping, the. former leader of China, who's a big. architect of economic reform there, is. widely reported to have said, "The. Middle East has oil, and China has rare. earths." That gives you some idea of the. significance of these materials. Um and. that's rare earth, but China's expanded. that into controlling raw materials from. of other descriptions as well that we've.

been talking about, cobalt, nickel, uh. lithium, etc. And they know that if they. can control this, it gives them power in. the global economy. China's become more. integrated into the global economy over. the last quarter of a century. And. they've been prepared to accept some of. the risks that comes with some of this. mining and refining. There's a lot of. environmental damage that can be caused. There are now ways to mitigate that, but. it costs more money. So, China has taken. on some of those environmental risks for.

for other countries, essentially, and in. return has had control of these. industries and been able to provide them. more cheaply than perhaps they would be. done elsewhere, where you'd have more. strict environmental controls. >> What about um America, then? What what's. what's President Trump trying to do? >> Yeah, so we've got this. meeting happening in Washington. It's. being hosted at the State Department by. the Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He's. got delegations coming from.

50 plus countries. There's ministers and. officials from from across the world. from the EU, Australia, New Zealand, the. UK, and they're all trying to work out. ways to work together. It's been a bit. difficult to try and work out exactly. what the agenda is for this meeting. But. the guidance I've had is has been sort. of directing this to President Trump. himself saying that he's the one that's. orchestrating this. It's under his. leadership. We've also had President. Trump this week saying that he's going. to put 12 billion dollars into creating.

a strategic reserve of critical minerals. for the United States. So putting some. money into it, which is what the. International Energy Agency are. advocating. And the other part of it is. that um America's also been been been. looking at business deals around this. They've put support into a rare earth. mine in a financial support that is into. a rare earth mine in California. It's. the only operational one in the country. And they have now moved to a position.

where they don't have to send that. material to China anymore to process it. into usable materials. And then we've. also had this week the US. government-backed consortium. Good Fortune agreeing to buy 40% of two. African copper and cobalt businesses. from the mining giant Glencore. So there. are these. these deals being made. President Trump. isn't the first American leader to try. and and do anything about this. President Biden did make efforts towards.

this, but perhaps President Trump would. say he's being more muscular, he's being. more vocal, and actually achieving more. in terms of this. So there are all. deals being made, but it these are all. long-term. ambitions because it takes a while to. takes many years really to to build a. mining project up and to. get the resources out of the ground and. turn them into usable materials. So, these aren't short-term fixes. >> Thanks, Jonathan. That was the BBC's. Jonathan Josephs. And if you like.

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