World request for critical minerals and uncommon earth metals is rapidly increasing. China is the dominant player in mining and refining, in turn Kazakhstan is the world's leading uranium producer, while Uzbekistan increases exports of uranium, copper and another uncommon earth metals.
The Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025 study of the global Energy Agency (MAE) reported that global request for lithium increased by 30% in 2024 compared to the erstwhile year. For another minerals utilized in the production of electrical vehicles, batteries and renewable energy sources, including cobalt, nickel and uncommon earth metals, there has besides been a strong increase in demand. The study indicated that the Russian-Ukrainian War, andThe ongoing geopolitical tension for which Russian trade pays has helped Kazakhstan increase uranium exports despite operational obstacles.
Meanwhile, the global Energy Agency praised the Uzbek agreement with the United States covering critical minerals, although details of the agreement were not disclosed. Kazakhstan can importantly increase its extraction in the coming years if Astana's April claims about the discovery of large deposits of uncommon earths prove true.
According to the MAE, in the last 2 years China has been the largest contributor to expanding demand. At the same time, Beijing is the world's largest supplier of uncommon earth elements. The study stated that China is the leading processor of 19 of the 20 strategical minerals surveyed in the report. China's marketplace dominance may possibly have worrying consequences for the global economy as technology develops.
Source: Eurasianet
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