The Global Mining Map: Who Controls Critical Minerals

The Global Mining Map

Everyone watches the mine. The leverage is in the refinery. Whoever processes the ore, not whoever digs it, sets the terms.

Mining is the part people picture. Refining is the part that holds the power.

You can pull rare earths out of California or Australia. For years they went to China to be separated, because that is where nearly all the separation capacity lives. Same split across cobalt, lithium and graphite: extraction spread around the world, processing concentrated in one place. A country can be rich in a mineral and still depend on a rival to use it.

The map names the producers — MP Materials, Freeport, Albemarle, SQM, BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore, Vale — sorted by what they pull and where. Two facts run the whole thing. Refining is more concentrated than mining. And reserves do not relocate on a politician's timeline.

Companies & entities in this map

Rare Earths, Antimony, Tungsten, Gallium / Ge, Graphite, Tritium / Li-6, Gold, Silver, Copper, Zinc / Pb, Lithium, Cobalt, Nickel, Uranium, Iron Ore, Bauxite / Al, Titanium, Platinum / PGMs, Manganese, Chromium, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Potash / Fert, Phosphate, Escondida, Grasberg, Antamina, Kamoa-Kakula, Kamoto (KCC), Kansanshi, Lumwana, Collahuasi, Las Bambas, Greenbushes, Salar de Atacama, Pilgangoora, Cauchari-Olaroz, Grota do Cirilo, Bikita / Arcadia, Bayan Obo, Mountain Pass, Mt Weld, Nolans Bore, Lovozero, Longnan ionic clays, Kachin ionic clays, Serra Verde, Browns Range, Dubbo, Round Top, IREL monazite sands, Cigar Lake, McArthur River, Inkai (Kazatomprom), Olympic Dam, Husab, Mutanda, Tenke Fungurume, Kisanfu, Metalkol RTR (tailings), Sulawesi laterite (Vale), Morowali / IMIP (Tsingshan), Norilsk-Talnakh, Ambatovy, Pilbara cluster (RIO/BHP/FMG), Carajás, Simandou, Weipa, CBG Boké, Jacinth-Ambrosia, Kenmare Moma, Balama, Heilongjiang flake (cluster), Ghawar field, Permian Basin, West Siberia, Marcellus / Appalachia, North Field / South Pars, Yamal LNG, China copper smelters, Japan copper smelters, Aurubis (Hamburg), LS-Nikko Onsan, China Li chemicals (Sichuan/Jiangxi), Albemarle La Negra, Kwinana Li hydroxide, Albemarle Kings Mountain, Baotou separation (light REE), Ganzhou heavy-REE separation, Lynas Kuantan

Muad'Dib Capital, the Atlas of the Physical Economy. For information only — not investment advice. Company lists are representative selections curated from public sources.

● mine ◆ refiner ▲ consumer ⋯ domestic ⋯ cross-border

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