The intensification of the war on it between America and China .. Where are the most expensive minerals in the world? And who benefits from it?

The Scenarios Program (10/06/2022) continued the heated geo-strategic competition between China and the United States, and Washington is trying to reduce its dependence on China and build better relations with African countries with large reserves of minerals.

These goals were at the heart of a recent meeting held in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which included, along with the United States, European, Asian and African countries under the title "Partnership of Mineral Security".

In this regard, the journalist writer specializing in economic affairs, Mustafa Abdel Salam, said that America considers the security of minerals a priority for the American security people, as Beijing had previously threatened to ban the supply of rare minerals to it during the trade war between China and America in 2018.

He added that the Ukraine war made America again put pressure on China, and confronted it with a paper supplying minerals again, noting that US President Joe Biden has a plan to establish 500,000 charging stations for electric cars, which are mainly based on rare metals, as is the case for batteries as well.

On the other hand, Kofi Kwaku, a researcher at the Center for African-Chinese Studies at the University of Johannesburg, said that there is a raging battle between China and America in Africa, considering that the African countries' role revolves around extracting minerals only, but their production does not serve their own economic interests.

He expected that America would take from extracting minerals a competitive war with China as the worst scenario, and the second scenario, which is the best, is that there will be an equation that satisfies all parties, including Africa.

As for Robert Scott, director of research for trade and industrial policies at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, he pointed out that it is difficult for America to produce these rare metals, as China has been investing for decades in this field as part of a strategic plan to control large shares in the field of advanced technology industries.

high demand

It is noteworthy that the global demand for rare metals is on the rise. As for the minerals that the United States and the member states of the New Partnership are seeking to start exploiting within mining projects on the African continent, they focus on those that are classified as strategic minerals of high importance.

Among the most important metals is lithium, which is used for many purposes, the most important of which is the manufacture of electric car batteries.

Zimbabwe has the largest reserves of it in Africa, but the largest producing countries in the world are Chile, Australia, Argentina and China.

The second most important mineral is cobalt, which is used in the manufacture of smartphone batteries, electric cars and wind turbines.

The largest producing country is the Democratic Republic of Congo, with an estimated stock of about 70% of the crude in the world's markets.

The third metal is nickel and is found mainly in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, but Indonesia tops the list of countries producing this metal with about 30% of total global production.

There is also the mineral coltan, which is an essential ingredient in the manufacture of mobile phones and many electronic devices.

The largest stock in the world is in the Congo, at 80%.