Mining Matters

Mining takes time. Surveying, testing, licensing, funding, development and producing add up to a multiyear project. Yet the products of that slow-moving industry are critical to the advancing digital field that wants to “move fast and break things.” Leaders in the digital and mining industries are currently trying to reconcile that disparity. China saw the connection between cutting-edge technology and mining decades ago because it plans long-term and strategically. As a result, China is at the center of global markets in the area of raw materials necessary for the digital and electric vehicle era. The U.S. and other Western economies often have a short horizon for investments, and now they are behind in the race to secure necessary raw materials to feed the expanding fields of battery technology, EVs, electricity grid support, data centers, smartphones and other products of the digital revolution. Catching up and securing necessary raw materials without relying on China will result in a scramble for financing and changing policies.