Source
doi:10.1787/f262b91c-en — original publication (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Context: thesis - No NI feeds (shallow ingest)
Summary
The IEA’s 2021 World Energy Outlook Special Report on critical minerals is the reference account of how the clean-energy transition raises demand for minerals (lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, rare earth elements) and how concentrated their production and, more sharply, their processing are. It is the primary evidence that emerging clean-energy technologies depend on geographically concentrated mineral supply chains. It gives the raw-minerals figure that the manufacturing-concentration figure at OT_117 (IEA ETP 2024) had been standing in for.
Key thesis insights
- Production of key minerals is highly concentrated. “For lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements, the world’s top three producing nations control well over three-quarters of global output” (Executive summary, pp.11-12). This is the tightest single supply-concentration statement for the problem framing. OT_235
- Single-country dominance in cobalt and rare earths. “The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and People’s Republic of China (China) were responsible for some 70% and 60% of global production of cobalt and rare earth elements respectively in 2019” (Executive summary, p.12). OT_235
- Processing is more concentrated than extraction. “China’s share of refining is around 35% for nickel, 50-70% for lithium and cobalt, and nearly 90% for rare earth elements” (Executive summary, p.12), so the concentration compounds downstream, at the refining stage the technologies actually draw on. OT_235
Notes
- Role. Problem-framing evidence: concentrated supply chains for the minerals emerging technologies depend on. Raw-minerals counterpart to the manufacturing-concentration figure at OT_117 (China ~70% of clean-tech manufacturing by value); this page restores the raw-minerals framing.
- Provenance. Downloaded directly from the official IEA site (iea.org) as the authoritative PDF; not AI-prepared, so no retrieval-provenance block. Held copy is the March 2022 revised reprint of the May 2021 report; executive-summary figures unchanged.
- Verification. All three quoted figures re-verified verbatim against the held PDF on 2026-08-05, with printed page numbers confirmed off the visual pages (pp.11-12). sha256 recorded for lint L22.
- Scope. context thesis, feeds empty, shallow ingest. No research target opened.
Connections
Links to
Sources (1): OT_117
Referenced by
Sources (1): OT_236