Series

Mineral Wealth and Electrification

The energy transition represents a significant opportunity for countries producing the materials critical to electrification. In this series, we look at eight such materials: aluminum, cobalt, copper, natural graphite, iron, lithium, manganese, and nickel. As demand for so-called “critical minerals” grows, producer countries must develop robust strategies for effective value capture to transform a temporary windfall into an opportunity to grow shared wealth and climb the value chain. Doing so demands both institutional capacity and political will. 

Key takeaways

  • Electrification is driving a growing demand for critical minerals, creating new opportunities for producer countries rich in these materials, as represented in our interactive online transition-critical minerals map.
  • While criticality is often considered in light of the needs of countries consuming these materials as inputs of higher value-added products, we adopt a producer-country perspective centered on the potential for wealth creation and public value capture and investment.
  • Sovereign wealth funds and other revenue management strategies can play a vital role in managing volatile commodity revenues, providing stability and promoting long-term investment.

In This Series


Visualization

Transition-Critical Minerals: Wealth Endowments and Value Capture — Interactive Map

A high-level distribution of current and future mining production and potential royalty revenue globally through 2030.

Report

Mineral Wealth and Electrification — Report

This report adopts a producer-country perspective centered on the potential for wealth creation and public value capture and investment.

Appendix

Mineral Wealth and Electrification — Technical Appendix

On data sources and data processing.

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