“Demand for lithium and other critical minerals is skyrocketing, IEA says, but concerns over supply linger”
July 12, 2023
“…In a new report published Tuesday, the Paris-based organization said the period between 2017 and 2022 saw a “tripling in overall demand for lithium, a 70% jump in demand for cobalt, and a 40% rise in demand for nickel.”…
Investment in the development of critical minerals increased by 30% in 2022, building upon a 20% rise in 2021, the IEA said. “Companies specialising in lithium development recorded a 50% increase in spending, followed by those focusing on copper and nickel,” it added, noting that firms in China nearly doubled their spending on investment last year…
China, for example, leads the extraction of graphite and rare earths and the processing of lithium, according to the IEA’s analysis. Despite this, the world’s second largest economy is still hugely reliant on another country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for mined cobalt…”
There is no reason why China can mine rare earth minerals and the U.S. can not. This is artificial scarcity. If anyone ever wanted to see a world wide scam this is a site to behold. All other countries have to do is mine and prices would drop.