Metal Highlights

Metals shape modern life, from electronics to energy

Metals and geopolitics

Metal commodity prices are at the mercy of geopolitics, wars, mine discoveries, and even miners’ strikes, making the market volatile.
Some metals are so strategic that countries have created national reserve stocks, such as tungsten, cobalt, and lithium, to avoid dependence on imports.

Critical metals

Critical metals are defined by supply risk, not scarcity. China dominates not only mining but, the refining & processing stages, accounting for around 90% of REE processing, 60% of refined lithium, and 70% of refined cobalt. The real bottleneck here is the chemical processing stage.
W/o critical metals, digitalization would not exist. Data centers, semiconductors, sensors, smart grids, and defense systems rely on metals such as tantalum, tungsten, indium, and REE. A single smartphone alone contains more than 30 metals.
A mine can take 10–20 years to become operational. Critical metals face long permitting cycles, including environmental & social approvals, making the market structurally volatile as supply responds very slowly to demand.

Gold, copper, nickel

Gold is an almost indestructible metal, capable of being recycled w/ virtually no loss of quality for millennia. Historically, it has served as a store of value, with around 40% of all gold ever mined still held by central banks.
Copper, the most widely used metal in electronics due to its outstanding elec. conductivity, is also known as the economic thermometer with its price rising during global growth and falling in times of crisis.
Nickel demand and production have doubled over the past decade due to the electrification of vehicles, with certain battery-grade nickel achieving an astonishing 99.99% purity.

Iron / steel

Nearly all extracted iron (98–99%) is used to produce steel, making it essential for infrastructure, transportation, and construction. Although iron is more abundant than gold or copper, pure iron is extremely rare in nature.
Brazil is the largest exporter of high-quality iron ore, with only 10% of the world's supply coming from countries outside major producers like Brazil, Australia, and China.
Stainless steel, which contains nickel as a key alloying element, is widely used in solar, wind, H2, and biogas projects due to its high resistance to corrosion. Offshore wind turbines rely heavily on it and special alloys to withstand extreme salinity, while green H2 projects depend on stainless steel for electrolyzers & piping systems.
304 steel is the most common austenitic stainless steel, containing 18-20% chromium and 8-10.5% nickel, known for excellent corrosion resistance, formability, and non-magnetic properties.

Agricultural minerals: where geology meets sustainable farming

Metals are vital for agriculture, from macro nutrients like potassium (K), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), and magnesium, to micro nutrients such as zinc, copper, manganese, and molybdenum.
K & P support growth, Ca & Mg strengthen plants, and S, now often from energy byproducts, links agriculture and industry.
Micro nutrients, though needed in tiny amounts, are crucial for productivity, with many recycled from industrial residues.