Geopolitics of Critical Mineral Supply Chains

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian is presenting at the Atlantic Council private workshop focused on the geopolitics of critical mineral supply chains organized on the sidelines of the Global Energy Forum, part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week on Monday, January 18, 2021, from 4:00pm – 6:00pm MT. 

This private workshop will feature keynote remarks from The Hon. Frank Fannon, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Energy Resources at the US Department of State, as well as a series of expert presentations featuring Dr. Morgan Bazilian, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, Mr. Vivas Kumar, Principal Consultant at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Dr. Michelle Michot-Foss, Fellow in Energy, Minerals, and Metals at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, and Dr. Michael Moats, Director of the Thomas J. O’Keefe Institute at the Missouri School of Science and Technology. Mr. Reed Blakemore, Deputy Director at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, will moderate. Throughout the conversation, distinguished panelists will engage with participants in a moderated discussion.

The clean energy transition offers profound opportunities to reduce global emissions and improve energy security by offering diverse, low-carbon sources of power. But while these new energy technologies gain momentum, the mineral supply chains that underpin them remain opaque, siloed, and misunderstood. As demand for critical minerals continues to grow, the geopolitics of how these materials are extracted, processed, and transported serve as a foundation for a secure and sustainable energy transition. As the demand for critical minerals rises, the United States and its partners must be sure to de-risk the geopolitical and sustainability challenges presented by critical mineral mining and processing. At this stage, however, the lack of knowledge about the mineral lifecycle and the supply chains involved has prohibited the development of a strategy to mitigate those challenges and ensure transparent, open, sustainable, and diverse mineral supply chains. Only when that occurs can the United States and its allies leverage their position as major sources of demand—and in some cases supply—to shape these markets as they continue to mature.

This workshop will be part of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum, which annually convenes in coordination with Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week and gathers the world’s top energy and foreign policy decision makers to set the global energy agenda for the year ahead and examine the longer-term geopolitical and geoeconomic implications of the changing energy system.