If 2026 were a chess match, critical minerals would be the opening gambit, and both China and the United States are going all out. On January 28, China’s Zijin Mining announced a US$4 billion takeover of Allied Gold’s three African mines. On February 3, Swiss mining giant Glencore entered talks to sell a 40 per cent stake in its Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) copper and cobalt operations to the US-backed Orion Critical Mineral Consortium.
Between the two announcements, US Secretary of State…
Pax Sinica vs Pax Silica: how China-US mineral war is taking shape
