A guide to the 4 minerals shaping the world’s energy future

The faster we move away from fossil fuels, the more desperately we will need these metals and other so-called critical minerals.

In an ambitious energy transition, global demand for them will quadruple by 2040 , according to the International Energy Agency .

Grist demystifies critical minerals and the race to extract them.

The fight against climate change depends on getting it right.

The United States ’ ambitions to create its own lithium supply chain rest to a large extent on a remote desert in northern Nevada .

The Democratic Republic of the Congo , or DRC, dominates world production of cobalt, another critical ingredient of lithium-ion batteries.

The other countries with known deposits, like Russia and Canada , only have enough proven supply to provide one year of world cobalt production at current rates.

Well over half of global production is concentrated in China , which has a stranglehold over the rare earth supply chain.

China controls 90 percent of the world’s rare earth refining capacity, two-thirds of its lithium and cobalt refining capacity.

In order to become component parts for EV batteries and wind turbines, these metals must be refined down to purer substances, often through energy intensive smelting processes.