Critical Raw Materials: Interests of China and the European Union in the Arctic

In this Essay, we examine a potential avenue of future contestation in the Arctic—namely, the development of critical raw materials (CRMs)—with a particular focus on two actors with a growing interest in exploiting those materials in the Arctic region: China and the European Union (EU). CRMs increasingly play an essential role in the geopolitics of the global energy transition. Today’s mining and processing landscape is geographically concentrated around a selected group of countries, such as Australia (for lithium), Chile (copper and lithium), China (graphite and rare earth elements, REEs), the Democratic Republic of Congo (cobalt), Indonesia (nickel) and South Africa (platinum and iridium). And while abundant reserves exist globally, mining and processing capabilities are (still) limited.Footnote1 Moreover, current supply chains are increasingly exposed to several geopolitical risks, such as external shocks, resource nationalism, export restrictions, mineral cartels, political instability and social unrest, as well as market manipulation.