Donald Trump’s quest for critical minerals has taken him from Greenland to Ukraine. He is not alone in wanting more metals, which will be needed for everything from increased electrification to more and bigger artificial-intelligence (AI) data centres and sturdier power grids. According to BCG, a consultancy, about a fifth of the minerals thought to be required by 2035 have yet to be found (see chart 1 on next page). Billions of dollars are being invested in trying to find new deposits, but few people know where all the required minerals will come from.
