ASPI Strategist this week released a new commentary arguing that the Quad’s critical minerals framework correctly identifies supply-chain vulnerabilities but remains too focused on extraction rather than the processing capacity, market mechanisms, and industrial coordination that underpinned China’s strategic dominance.
The commentary states that the Quad should establish a strategic minerals system integrating demand commitments, coordinated reserves, distributed processing networks, and permanent institutional coordination to convert geological advantage into enduring strategic power.
Quote:
Critical minerals have become central to strategic competition because they underpin military capability, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence infrastructure, telecommunications systems and energy technologies. Control over processing, refining, manufacturing and market access creates leverage during periods of economic coercion, political tension and strategic competition. Any serious effort to reduce vulnerability must therefore focus on the broader industrial system rather than on extraction alone.
Read the full commentary: The Quad is still treating critical minerals as a mining problem