How to avoid a green-metals crunch
With ingenuity, a 6.5bn-tonne problem may be dodged
Everyone wants more metals. In recent months Britain has inked a deal with Zambia, Japan has sealed one with Namibia and the eu has shaken hands with Chile. The bloc’s negotiators also started talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo; America’s, meanwhile, visited Mongolia. This scattershot campaign, which is also targeting the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, has a single aim: obtaining the minerals required for rapid decarbonisation.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Keep digging”
From the September 16th 2023 edition
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