DEMAND for critical minerals that power the military, technology and smartphones could triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040, the UN political chief told the UN security council on Thursday.
 
The report sparked fears that the global South could be condemned to continue its role as a poor, subservient extractive zone for the wealthy global North.
 
“A decade ago, minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel had limited strategic importance,” Undersecretary-general Rosemary DiCarlo said. “Today, they underpin the technologies powering the digital economy and the energy transition.”
 
She spoke at a signature event chosen by the US, which holds the security council presidency this month, entitled “Energy, critical minerals and security.”
 
Calling critical minerals one of the main drivers of the 21st century economy, DiCarlo said that in 2023, trade in raw and semi-processed minerals reached approximately $2.5 trillion (£1.9 trillion).
 
“This represents more than 10 per cent of global trade,” she said. 
 
“Demand could triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040.” Her office said the figures and projections were from UN reports in 2025.
 
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who chaired the meeting, said it is in the security interest of the US and its allies not to be overly dependent on any single country “for materials critical to our economies and national security.”
 
“The work we’re doing today, especially on the strategic importance of critical minerals and energy, is directly tied to preventing conflict and building a world where countries can co-operate and move forward together,” he said.
 
The Trump administration is moving to shore up supplies of critical minerals needed for electric vehicles, fighter jets and other high-tech products. 
 
Last month, Washington announced that it wants to create a critical minerals trading bloc.
 
China’s UN ambassador Fu Cong told the council that imbalances in supply and demand are becoming increasingly pronounced “as the world enters a new period of turbulence and transformation.”
 
As part of the US effort to diversify critical mineral supplies, the Trump administration is stepping up co-operation with Congo and forced Venezuela, through its January 3 military intervention where they kidnapped the President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Celia Flores and killed 100 people, to provide wider unlimited access to its mineral and fuel resources.
 
At the recent Munich (so-called) Security Conference, the far-right US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that the extraction, exploitation and control of the wealth of the global majority will be stepped up, inviting the Europeans to join him in his imperialist adventure.