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Fueled by Trade Tensions and Foreign Wars, a Rush for an Obscure Mineral Heats up in Alaska
- On June 5, 2025, researchers affiliated with the United Nations and international specialists introduced a proposal for a Global Minerals Trust aimed at guaranteeing equitable access to essential minerals amid rising geopolitical conflicts and trade challenges.
- This proposal arises from rising demand for critical minerals needed for clean energy and AI technologies, and concerns about supply concentration and conflict risks in resource-rich unstable regions.
- The trust would treat minerals as shared global assets while countries retain sovereignty, coordinating trade with transparent audits to stabilize supply and enforce environmental and social safeguards.
- Saleem Ali, lead author, emphasized that lacking a common framework could worsen global disparities, lead to avoidable disputes over resources, and hinder progress toward achieving climate objectives.
- The trust could reduce market volatility, facilitate circular economy models, and promote long-term resilience, suggesting a shift from competition to cooperative global stewardship of critical minerals.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Anchorage Daily News
Alaska BeaconFueled by trade tensions and foreign wars, a rush for an obscure mineral heats up in Alaska
A Texas company recently acquired 50 square miles of mining claims across Interior Alaska. Now it wants to start trucking antimony — a mineral used in weapons and solar panels — to its processing plant in Montana.
Conservation news
ecotopical.comUN scientists propose ‘minerals trust’ to power green energy, protect communities
Rapidly scaling up renewable energy to limit future warming requires a sharp increase in the supply of critical minerals like cobalt, nickel and lithium for technologies including solar panels, battery storage and electric vehicles. Yet sourcing these minerals often comes at a steep cost for both the environment and local communities. Now, a coalition of U.N. scientists is proposing a new way forward: a global minerals trust. “We need to replace…
UN scientists propose a 'global trust' to safeguard critical minerals as trade tensions mount
Amid intensifying trade wars, geopolitical tensions, and surging demand for AI and clean energy technologies, United Nations scientists and global experts have unveiled a bold proposal for a "Global Minerals Trust"—a cooperative, multilateral governance mechanism to ensure fair, sustainable, and conflict-free access to critical minerals.
The politicologist and writer spoke with Dialogue Earth about the challenges of mining critical minerals for Latin American countries Throughout Latin America, lithium, copper and other fundamental resources for renewable energy technologies arouse the interest of governments and companies alike. But behind the headlines on ecological progress lies a more complex story, marked by ancient tensions over resource governance, territorial rights and …
Ensuring the security of the clean energy transition: Examining the impact of geopolitical risk on the price of critical minerals
We use constant and time-varying parameter local projection (TVP-LP) regression models to examine the effect of geopolitical risk on prices of six cri…
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