Critical Minerals: Strategic Review

Critical Minerals Strategic Review: The Scramble for Oil 2.0

Published October 2025 | By Challenger Research Group

Overview
Critical Minerals: The Scramble for Oil 2.0 is a comprehensive strategic review examining how lithium, nickel, rare earths, and other essential minerals have become the foundation of twenty-first-century power — reshaping global industry, trade, and geopolitics. Produced by a multidisciplinary team of analysts, policy experts, and industry practitioners, the report positions critical minerals as the defining strategic resources of the digital and clean-energy eras.

Produced by 21 authors, from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, including political and corporate figures. 

Key Insights
The report maps the new geography of power emerging from global competition over supply chains that underpin everything from electric vehicles and renewable energy to semiconductors and defence systems.
It explores:

• China’s industrial dominance in refining, separation, and midstream processing — now the “commanding heights” of the mineral economy.

• Western realignment through the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, which link industrial autonomy to climate and security policy.

• Investment bifurcation between ESG-compliant “clean” supply and opaque grey markets.

• Legal transformation — how due diligence, traceability, and sustainability reporting have evolved from voluntary norms to market-entry requirements.

• Regional outlooks on Russia, Ukraine, Japan, and the emerging “connector economies” that link resource extraction with strategic processing.

Why It Matters
Control over critical minerals and rare earths has replaced oil as the new fulcrum of industrial and geopolitical leverage. As the report shows, value now lies not in extraction but in refining, certification, and trust. For policymakers, this means rebuilding the midstream — the metallurgical core of modern economies. For investors, it highlights where opportunity converges with compliance and national strategy.

Ideal For
Policymakers • Institutional Investors • ESG Analysts • Defence and Energy Strategists • Academic and Industry Researchers