From an interview with Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega & Emmanuel Hache, found in full in the Géosciences magazine No. 29 from BRGM: “Telling the Earth.”
The energy and digital transitions, which require numerous mineral resources, involve significant geopolitical and geo-economic stakes. Why?
Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega: The low-carbon and digital transitions require a large number of raw materials, the demand for which is constantly increasing. Metals emerged as an important issue in 2010 when China disrupted some supplies to Japan, and since 2021, it has become a crucial issue as shortages and export restrictions have gradually been observed, while analyses showing the extent of the increasing needs in the future have multiplied. European countries, who import 70 to 100% of the metals they consume, are now paying the price for their industrial negligence over the past decades and have not paid enough attention to the systematic strengthening of Chinese positions during this time, especially in the very sensitive refining segment. At the same time, hydrocarbons continue to dominate global and European energy mixes. So, there is a dual geopolitics: both metals and hydrocarbons.
How do you explain China’s economic dominance in metal production?
Emmanuel Hache: For example, China accounts for nearly 70% of the mining extraction of metals known as “rare earths” and over 90% of their refining on a global scale. Chinese dominance in metal markets is now global, and it is present across all metal value chains. This positioning stems from a deliberate choice, initiated in the 1980s by industrialized countries that preferred to transfer their most energy-consuming and polluting industries to China. China has thus become an importer in many metal markets (copper, alumina, bauxite, lead, zinc, tin, etc.), by developing a mining diplomacy based on conquering foreign markets and ensuring supplies at lower costs from the 2000s onward.
