Two of the most important and low-cost chemical elements in the world’s transition to zero-carbon energy are running into the mining sector’s evergreen problem: Political risk.
Unrest in Kazakhstan and regulatory uncertainty in Chile have already affected the prices of uranium and lithium, which are both extracted using elements dissolved in liquids evaporated from groundwater or pumped into the rock. That’s often better value than the more energetic blast-and-grind methods used in hard-rock mining, and as a result the places where it’s viable have traditionally dominated output.
