Start with something you did not know
Then go anywhere →Everything is one chain
All supply chains →The same nine stages sit behind almost every physical product. Click any stage to see what lives there.
And here is that same chain with real places in it
One tonne of copper, from a Chilean pit to a wire — 0.5% ore, a smelter on another continent, and the gold and tellurium that fall out on the way. Follow it →
Follow one consignment, border by border
All journeys →Venezuelan extra-heavy crude and Saudi Arab Light are both "oil", and only one of them can be refined almost anywhere. Pick a material, pick where it came out of the ground, and watch who holds it at every border.
Venezuelan extra-heavy crude to diesel, asphalt and aluminium anodes
Oil so thick it will not flow down a pipe, and cannot be refined by most refineries on Earth.
Saudi Arab Light to petrol, almost anywhere
The same commodity, a fraction of the effort — because of what the molecule is.
Alberta oil sands: mined like ore, refined like oil
The only oil in the world that is dug up with a shovel and graded like an orebody.
Chilean brine to a battery in a car
The ore is water. The first year and a half of processing is done by the sun, for free.
Australian spodumene to a battery, the fast way
Eight weeks instead of eighteen months, at the cost of a great deal more energy.
New Caledonian laterite to stainless steel
An island that smelts its own ore, and pays for it with the most expensive electricity in the industry.
Indonesian laterite to a battery cathode
A country that banned raw ore exports and built the processing industry instead.
Chilean sulfide concentrate to Chinese cathode to a wire
Chile mines the most copper in the world. China refines the most. Those are not the same sentence.
Or take the same chains without the borders
Materials the world is short of
The full critical minerals list →Criticality flag as designated in the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. Leading-producer shares are 2025 estimates from the same source.
Silicon
The second-most-common element in the Earth's crust — ordinary sand — purified until only one atom in a billion is something…
Phosphate Rock
Rock full of the element phosphorus — the P in fertiliser, and now the P in the LFP batteries used in most new electric cars in…
Platinum-Group Metals
Six metals — platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and osmium — that occur together and are separated from each…
Europium
The rare earth that glows red under ultraviolet light, and which for decades put the red in every colour television.
Aluminium
A light silvery metal made by passing an enormous electric current through dissolved bauxite — which is why people call it…
Beryllium
A very light, very stiff metal that is transparent to X-rays and dangerous to breathe as dust.
Palladium
Platinum's cheaper cousin for most of the twentieth century, then briefly more expensive than gold because petrol cars need it.
Lithium
A soft, silvery metal so light it floats on water, and the element that lets a rechargeable battery store a lot of energy for…
Three ways in
Latest reporting
All news →Headlines and summaries from named publishers, each linking back to the original. We do not republish articles.
SW US mine rush collides with water limits
The gap between a legal right and a secure physical supply is becoming more apparent in the US critical mineral production.
End of a dollar-centered world nears, gold to replace some bonds, fund manager says
We're in a very early part of a generational boom market in commodities, says Willem Middelkoop.
US Forest Service signs off on South32 Hermosa’s mine plan in Arizona
Hermosa hosts one of the world’s largest undeveloped zinc deposits, a battery-grade manganese deposit and the emerging Peak copper discovery.
Eldorado eyes bigger McIlvenna Bay copper mill
The operation is expected to average 41 million lb. of copper, 20,000 oz. of gold and 444,000 oz. of silver annually.
Eldorado eyes bigger McIlvenna Bay copper mill
Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD; NYSE: EGO) is studying a 43% expansion of its McIlvenna Bay processing plant and a new silver-lead circuit as the Saskatchewan copper-zinc-gold-silver mine ramps…
Strike to begin at Sibanye-Stillwater’s US operations
A walkout by about 750 workers threatens output at the Stillwater East mine and Columbus processing facilities in Montana.
There’s no shortage of copper, it’s just in the wrong place
Reuters columnist Andy Home brought his analysis on copper and the everchanging metals market to the Northern Miner podcast.
Tungsten surge transforms Northcliff’s Sisson economics
Northcliff Resources’ (TSX: NCF; US-OTC: NCFFF) new feasibility study for the Sisson tungsten-molybdenum project in New Brunswick puts its post-tax value at more than four times the cost to…