Geopolitics

California’s Hell’s Kitchen Lithium Project Heads To Nasdaq In A $4.7 Billion SPAC Deal

The real question isn’t the listing. It’s whether Salton Sea geothermal brines can become a reliable U.S. source of battery-grade lithium.

Gold Rallies After the U.S.-Israel Strikes on Iran, Reaffirming Its Role as a Structural Hedge

This week’s price action shows gold is being used as insurance against energy, shipping, and policy risk hitting markets at the same time.

Gold Sale Talk as a Shortcut for Countries That Cannot Reform

Lebanon’s debate over selling or leasing gold shows how a crisis turns the reserve into the last clean asset that can raise dollars fast, while public trust decides whether it can be used at all.

Metallurgy as Strategy: How Refining Capacity Becomes Geopolitical Leverage

The silent power of smelters, chemical processors, and industrial know-how in controlling global mineral flows.

U.S. Targets African Copper And Cobalt With Offtake Deals To Counter China’s Grip

Washington is using financing and offtake rights to secure first claim on African copper and cobalt without owning the mines.

U.S. Launches “Project Vault,” A $12B Critical-Minerals Stockpile To Counter China

A shared buffer aims to keep factories running by smoothing short-term supply breaks in key minerals.

U.S. Invests $1.6B In USA Rare Earth To Build A Mine-To-Magnet Supply Chain

The January 26, 2026 deal makes one point clear: the real choke point is turning rock into separated oxides, metals, and finished magnets—steps where China still sets the pace.

Europe’s €3 Billion Critical-Minerals Plan Runs Into a Simple Problem: It’s Not Enough

The EU has targets for mining and processing by 2030, but the real bottleneck is financing and “bankability,” not ambition.

Export Controls, Not Ore Shortages, Are Driving the Critical Minerals Market This Week

Recent policy moves underscore how processing bottlenecks and trade rules now matter more than raw supply

China Streamlines Rare-Earth Magnet Export Licenses — and the Real Chokepoint Is Still Refining

Beijing’s new “general licences” keep exports moving while reinforcing a deeper truth: processing control, not mine output, is where pricing power sits in strategic metals.

The Hidden Forces Behind the Next Copper and Nickel Squeeze

How geopolitical realities, not just EV and clean energy demand, are quietly reshaping the global metals map and determining who controls the future of copper and nickel.

Pentagon Inks New Antimony Supply Deal to Bolster Domestic Strategic-Metal Security

How the Defense Department’s latest sourcing move exposes long-running vulnerabilities in America’s critical-minerals system.