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Web
Mining → refining → magnets — the metals that feed the AI buildout and electrification.
The battery cathode's lightest metal; the chokepoint is chemical conversion (~65-80% Chinese), not the mine, so non-China converters are the scarce node.
Battery-metal side-rail
Mine supply is upstream-concentrated (DRC cobalt, Indonesia nickel) but the leverage is China's midstream (~70% cobalt refining, ~100% Asian pCAM) plus DRC export quotas.
Battery-metal side-rail
The nuclear fuel the data-center power buildout runs on; the chokepoint is Western enrichment/HALEU (Russia ~40-45% of SWU), not pounds in the ground.
Nuclear-fuel side-rail
Every arrow in the Metals Web points up into this; the AI buildout + electrification is the demand shock that turned latent metal dependencies into acute ones.
Demand engine
The raw ore — but counter-intuitively NOT the chokepoint; concentrate is the binding scarcity only because smelting is over-built relative to mine feed (record-low $0/t TC/RCs prove it).
Upstream
The real chokepoint of the copper slice — China runs ~half of global smelting on ~8% of mining; integrated, US-located, tariff-advantaged cathode captures the squeeze.
Midstream chokepoint
Where metal becomes the thing that energizes a data center; GOES + 36-48mo transformer lead times gate ~7 GW of stalled US 2026 capacity even though gear is <10% of project cost.
Downstream chokepoint
Financing, not ore, is the binding constraint on the new-mine wave; streamers supply scarce capital for a perpetual cut, with uncapped price upside and no operating-cost risk.
Financing & tools
{ funds & equips }
The scarcest node in the whole Web — magnets for DC cooling, EV motors, robotics, defense; China controls ~90%+ of separation/magnets and >90% of heavy-RE processing.
Strategic-metal side-rail
Silver is irreplaceable in PV conductive paste + high-reliability contacts and is in its 6th straight deficit; ~70%+ is mined as a by-product so supply can't chase the price.
Precious/catalyst side-rail