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Minerals: the ground the new economy stands on

THE GROUND UNDER THE NEW ECONOMY

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Every economy runs on something dug out of the ground, and the places it is dug from have paid for it. Silver from Potosí paid for an empire. Congo's rubber, then its coltan and cobalt, paid for others. Today's phones, cars and batteries need cobalt from Africa, lithium from South America, and rare earths and nickel refined in Asia. Here is where they come from, and what it has cost.

The pattern is old — THE RECORD

Silver from Potosí, in today's Bolivia, flowed to Spain from 1545, much of it dug under the mita, a system of forced labour. Rubber from the Congo Free State (1885 to 1908) was gathered under forced labour that became an international scandal. Diamonds paid for Sierra Leone's civil war (1991 to 2002), and the Kimberley Process, begun in 2000 and in force from 2003, was the answer.

Congo: coltan and cobalt — THE RECORD · MEASURED · THE DEATH COUNT: CONTESTED

Congo's wars (1996 to 2003) drew in the armies of its neighbours. A UN panel reported in 2001 that armies and rebels were exploiting Congo's minerals, coltan among them, to pay for the war. The International Rescue Committee estimated 5.4 million excess deaths from 1998 to 2007; other researchers put the number far lower. In 2010 section 1502 of the US Dodd-Frank Act required companies to report whether their tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold came from Congo or its neighbours. Congo now mines about three quarters of the world's cobalt, and most of it is refined in China. Amnesty International documented children as young as seven working in hand-dug cobalt mines (2016).

Goma, 2025 — THE RECORD · ONE SHARE: AN NGO ESTIMATE

In 2024 the M23 armed group took Rubaya, whose mines are estimated to supply about 15% of the world's tantalum (Global Witness). UN experts reported that at least 150 tonnes of coltan were smuggled from its area into Rwanda, and that Rwanda's army supports the group; Rwanda denies it. In January 2025 M23 took Goma, the capital of North Kivu, and in February Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu. In June 2025 Congo and Rwanda signed a peace agreement in Washington that opened a path for US investment in the region's minerals.

South America: lithium and copper — MEASURED · THE RECORD

Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, the 'lithium triangle', hold about 43% of the world's known lithium resources, by the US Geological Survey's 2026 count. Most of it is pumped up as brine from under salt flats in the Atacama and the Andes, among the driest places on Earth, and the water it takes is disputed by the Indigenous communities who live there. Chile announced in 2023 that the state would hold the majority in its strategic lithium projects; Bolivia's lithium is state-run. Chile and Peru together mine about a third of the world's copper.

Asia: rare earths and nickel — MEASURED · THE RECORD

China mines about 70% of the world's rare earths and refines about 90% of them (US Geological Survey; International Energy Agency). Rare earths make the magnets in motors, wind turbines, phones and missiles. In April 2025 China put seven rare earths and their magnets under export licences; in October it widened the rules to foreign products made with Chinese rare earths, and in November 2025 it paused that widening until 10 November 2026. Much of China's supply of heavy rare earths is mined in Myanmar's Kachin state, in areas held by armed groups. Indonesia banned exports of raw nickel ore in 2020 to force refining at home; it now produces more than half of the world's nickel, most of it in plants owned by Chinese firms.

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