The Race for Minerals, Wealth, and Influence

Every nation is chasing green technology, electric vehicles, and affordable gadgets. But all of this hinges on minerals like lithium, nickel, and copper. And guess who holds the reins? China. They’re scooping up mines all over the place, outbidding everyone with state funds, and sometimes letting their companies take losses just to secure future supplies. Plus, they control the factories that convert raw minerals into finished goods. Here’s a crazy fact: China processes over 90% of the world’s rare earths and is responsible for around 69% of mining output. For stuff like cobalt, lithium, and copper, they often account for more than half of the production. Now, Western countries like the US, Europe, and Australia are getting anxious. They’re chatting about "friendship" and "secure supply chains," but what’s the real action? Mostly just tossing money at big corporations or forming new trade alliances, yet they still rely heavily on Chinese factories and tech. On top of that, local communities in Africa, Asia, and South America are fed up with both East and West taking control of their resources. Sometimes they just move in on mines and change partners. The world is in a frenzy to grab more minerals, but we might be setting ourselves up for the same old issues: dependency, environmental damage, debt, and broken promises. And this time, it’s not just about oil but everything from phone batteries to wind turbines.

It’s no secret if you look at it because, China hasn’t hidden any of its strategies towards trade and how they stay ahead in production to the world. Something I enjoy more from these people, there is a lot of specialization in the country and kids are taught from such a young age how to handle tools. They have a working system and research team to identify minerals that would be useful and try to have large shares in its production. No matter what you are producing, you’ll definitely need minerals and with them at the top of its supply, you’ve got to need them. Don’t forget, they produce too and might not have any need of you.

Governments of all countries in the world want technology and a better environment. This is not a secret. China is always far ahead of all other countries in the world in terms of its activities and strategies.  All Chinese furniture is a very well-known thing in any country in the world. No matter what you make, it definitely needs minerals. You will need a lot of minerals.

Much respect to their level of focus and organization, right down to how they train kids to be hands-on and technical early. Such skill development is lacking in most other nations where theory usually wins over hands-on expertise The most interesting thing is the way they integrate that work culture with long-term planning. When China determines that something is strategic, it is not only the government. It turns into a national mission: schools, universities, businesses, even local communities are involved. It is difficult to beat that when you are operating on four-year election cycles or quarterly profit-seeking And, yes, when you want minerals, you play their game, or you wait in line. The world is seeing now that it’s not just about trade or price, but who has the system in place, and who’s building for the next twenty years, not just tomorrow

True talk Africa has been at the receiving end of the world cruelty's and with the recent rise of China and as their influence continues to grow in Africa I am one of those people who believes that Africa can't grow with this current structure of depending on foreigners africa has to take control of her minerals by setting up processing factories and mine their minerals for themselves things is what traore of Burkina feso is doing Going to the way of China is like switching slave masters so I agree with you that should not forget what happens in the past as China is invading the African continent now

Yeah, they’ve built that into their culture and although on like many other nations, the Chinese culture spans through several dynasties and generations which could be the core reason behind several integrations to have brought them this far. Where I’m from, the educational curriculum doesn’t introduce you to measure tools let alone industrial equipments till you are in a properly equipped higher institution of learning and even then, you don’t get enough experience with the tools. In order to build a stronger economy, you have to be a producing nation and major supplier in some of the essential resources and that’s what the Chinese is often about.

China is advance country and that is producing many minerals which are part of our life and Industries are one of the important part of any country. Many countries are rich in copper and they lack other minerals but china government is doing struggle for all minerals and we can see detail of Internet and we can read trusted websites because other countries could not cross chain in that respect. China is working to make batteries and these batteries will be available for the electric cars and that will be low cost and they will sell at low price. China economy will go up but America is not happy with the progress of China because they are leaving behind big countries.

What “mistakes” are we even talking about here? A mistake implies someone actually admits something was wrong — but when has any government ever said that controlling minerals or resources was a mistake? Just look at OPEC: it literally calls itself a cartel and acts like one, openly and unapologetically, even though cartels are illegal in most contexts. China simply found something it could dominate — resource processing — and did what any rational superpower would do: locked it down. Why wouldn’t they? Even in crypto, where everything’s supposed to be “decentralized,” you still see dev teams and companies trying to gain full control over blockchains. Even Bitcoin isn’t immune to that. This isn’t a mistake. It’s how the world works. It’s not about East vs. West — it’s about power, control, and survival. And that dynamic will keep playing out right up until the planet itself gives out.

Africans are fools (#Edit: the government and non-government selling and playing politics on the commonwealth), they have all it takes to be wealthy and control the world, but still, they live in abject poverty. What a shame! Even the colonisers did not help, as they've sucked them dry, but it seems things are now changing, with France sent back to its country in some African countries, and a few others are now talking tough. Recently, Nigeria warned the US to tread carefully on the immigration ban on its citizen, that it would cost them access to their rare earth minerals. The continent has never talked tough before, but focused on the money that would gain. But now, they are discovering their stance in the world.

EarnOnVictor I will ask that you take back that statement that Africas are fools, I believe you are from Africa and are you saying you are also a fool, I think you should direct it to our African leaders who won't use our resources to develop the continent or there different countries, and again I think the problem of Africa is the system that those that colonies them introduced to them, that system can't work well for us I'm sure if we where still operating monarchy system of government the continent won't be in this same condition so those that forced another system on us are also to be blamed for the condition of Africa. I'm happy that the African countries are really now standing up for themselves, Africa is a continent full with mineral resources and if only our leaders can use it very well and develop our continent I'm very sure we will be among the richest if not even the richest continent in the world, I love the fact that Nigeria warned the US to tread carefully on the immigration ban on its citizen, US are just seeing Nigeria's as nothing and is because our leaders are not doing the things they are suppose to do for us as citizens.

Who the heck are you to tell me to take back my statement? You are so fond of yourself, and only arrogance and stupidity could make you request such. Ok, Mr take it back, I hold to my statement in an infinite percentage, it's your headache, bear it alone. And as you know, I am an African, but before you raise that ego to direct that arrogance towards me, you should first learn to know how a statement is directed to the prevailing context and should remain with the context, rather than stupidly referring it to the entirety of Africans and what Africans stand for. Africans are smart and beautiful people who have the best scorecard in many aspects of life, so don't tell me what I know, and let it enter into your tiny brain that the "fool" statement was directed at the wealth distribution, selfishness and corruption, and not everything African in case your brain is too little to understand that apsect in communication. At this point, I think it's time you stop before it continues to make you look uneducated. Are they the same people who have been ruling for centuries? Has the selfishness, corruption and selling of their countries out for cheap gains stopped? It is in the DNA. So I wonder what an average African would do differently, unless God blessed us with exceptional ones. As for the system of government, can't we change it? Do we need the foreigners to also change that for us as sovereign nations? That is the problem with Africans, you will complain and complain, whereas the solution to the problem is in your hands.

I'm not expert in electronics, but I suspect that should there ever be a shortage or some other thing that inflates the price of metals, new technology will be developed that doesn't use so much of them.  And suppose I'm way off the mark on that one--isn't there a possibility of we earthlings mining for copper and all of those other things that go into electronics on asteroids? Yeah, I might be just a wee bit ignorant but not so much that I firmly believe these problems tend to work themselves out over time.  In the meantime....yeah, there's a big discrepancy of power when it comes to who's got control over the mining and selling of minerals/metals. I've never thought of African citizens as fools because a lot of them live in poverty as you say (and which is true).  I've always thought it was their oppressive governments who were--and still are--at fault.  The people aren't stupid by any means, so you'd think African nations would be as advanced as any European country.  Since most aren't, what other explanation is there?

China their way of thinking is mostly going forward, but some of their government countries think they are back, as important as their families and stomachs are full of problems, the people are not their business. China understands the economic sustainability and the benefits of mineral sources and their economy do not waste the opportunity in managing minerals, The power they have is truly beneficial for the whole community not for a handful of parties. In contrast to countries that have greedy power of mineral wealth, the economy is made a trigger for conflict only for personal interests and power struggles, it is not surprising if we Often seeing China also different from other countries, mineral exploitation is made into damage such as injustice and social conflict, very unfortunate.

If you where offered by my statement I take it back, we are here to educate each other and learn and share ideas. Is not possible to change the system of government from what it is, for example Nigeria operates under a federal republic system with a presidential system of government and over time this has been the system of government that has been in place the monarchy system has already been destroyed because of the amalgamation that was carried out by those that colonies us by joining different kingdoms together, in Nigeria the Northern and Southern where different with there own kings that where ruling every kingdom they had rules and regulations that the people obey and when you fail to obey this rules in some cases the god's of the land may punish you with death or other things and this has been the situation not until we where colonies and this different kingdoms where amalgamated by British colonial Governor Frederick Lugard forcing them to become one, and there by making it a political entity. Now there's no way one king will come out to rule Nigeria again because there's different kingdoms in Nigeria with there own king's, the only way monarchy system of government can work is by dividing the nation. The systems usually set in place in monarch is want can work in Africa.

First, as Africans, we are angry with the situation, notwithstanding, that statement was directed to those involved, since they are Africans. And it will shock you that many movers and shakers of African wealth are not in government, it's all internal politics, selling the continent to the highest bidder, so I had to use it that way. It's not directed at all Africans who are not guilty of it. Well, I think I need to edit it to avoid further misconceptions, because you are the second person who misunderstood that "fools" as the general personality of Africans, No. It was the selfishness and corruption, and the gullibility for allowing personal gains to make foreigners still control their wealth and dictate to them, rather than using them to upgrade the continent and living standards.

This gold rush has been going forever. Where there's value there are people mining it. The difference with China is whatever they do, they do it efficiently and in large scale. It's not that other countries doesn't have natural resources to produce solar panels yet over 70% of solar panels in the world is produced in China and no its not due to cheap labour cost. Labour cost in China is much higher than most of the Asian countries but they excel in automation and are efficient. This links to the involvement of government, even though the government of China is not democratically elected, it keeps its national interest and interest of people on the center. While say for Asian and African democracy where they have legit votes but the whole of society and the government are corrupt and they spend the money and resources to win next elections rather than improving the life of people. There is democracy but its promotes and protects corruption.

This is a very interesting topic but I think your summary overlooks one key point. While they might have started looking at other countries and companies to "lock down" the supply, many of the super rare minerals were actually extracted from within China itself. Either through quirks of geography that or because they were willing to create some very dirty industries in order to supply the demand. The fact that they were polluting their own land in order to extract and process a lot of these minerals, does give them a fair right to restrict how they get distributed. It also made them experts at understanding and improving the extraction of these key resources, while the rest of the world just sat around enjoying the end product - but now the price is going up as the Chinese juggernaut is learning some self respect

It's like a repeating cycle, but with a more modern approach. We are closely tied to the colonial system, and whatever resources a region has will continue to be drained by powers that control it from within and without. Almost 99% of goods in every country are made in China, even Trump stores in the US are filled with goods made in China. So economically, China controls all kinds of goods in the global market. The sense of concern being expressed by Europe, the US, Asia, and Africa can be said to be too late, as by the time we realize it, China has already taken 100 steps ahead of us.

Hey EarnOnVictor you are right about Africa resources to build anything but the word you are using to demonstrate it is very wrong because you have individually called everybody in the African region a fool which we are not, if you are not happy with the entire continent for not utilizing there internal mineral resources to rank up high in the world doesn't mean everybody is behind the reason why is like that so actually if you want to blame anybody is the leaders of those countries you should call that because just like you everybody is also disappointed to see that there country is a bit backward.

Yeah, that's kind of what I figured as you're not the type of member I'd typically associate with insulting an entire continent of people.  Isn't it always the super-wealthy and super-powerful groups of people that beat down the citizens of their own countries?  That's a rhetorical question, of course--and it should be obvious to anyone paying attention to what's going on in the world that the phenomenon isn't exclusive to Africa (although the level of poverty alone shows that many countries in Africa have been beaten down harder than a lot of others, and that's sickening).