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Why any of this is mined

End markets

Nothing is mined for its own sake. Every tonne moved is pulled by demand at the far end of the chain — a car, a turbine, a building, a chip, a field of wheat.

PACKARD 120 CONVERTIBLE COUPE (1939) (50072477626) · Pedro Ribeiro Simões from Lisboa, Portugal · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Electric Vehicles

Electric Vehicles

Cars, vans, buses and trucks that store energy in a battery instead of a tank.

13 materials4 tech
Power Grids

Power Grids

The wires, transformers and substations that move electricity from where it is made to where it is used.

8 materials1 tech
Data Centres & AI

Data Centres & AI

The buildings full of servers that run cloud software and train AI models.

10 materials1 tech
Wind Power

Wind Power

Turbines that turn moving air into electricity, onshore and at sea.

9 materials1 tech
Solar Power

Solar Power

Panels that turn sunlight straight into electricity with no moving parts.

10 materials2 tech
Nuclear Power

Nuclear Power

Reactors that split heavy atoms to boil water and drive a turbine.

10 materials1 tech
Construction & Steel

Construction & Steel

Buildings, bridges, roads, rail and pipelines — the built world.

14 materials1 tech
Aerospace & Defence

Aerospace & Defence

Aircraft, engines, satellites, missiles and armour.

15 materials1 tech
Semiconductors

Semiconductors

The chips that run everything with a plug or a battery.

16 materials1 tech
Agriculture & Food

Agriculture & Food

Growing food — which is, chemically, a mining problem.

9 materials
Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Scanners, implants, instruments and radioisotopes.

10 materials
Consumer Electronics

Consumer Electronics

Phones, laptops, headphones, wearables and everything else with a screen.

13 materials
Robotics & Automation

Robotics & Automation

Machines that move, sense and act without a person holding them.

9 materials
Hydrogen & Electrolysis

Hydrogen & Electrolysis

Splitting water with electricity to make a fuel and a chemical feedstock.

8 materials2 tech
Grid Storage

Grid Storage

Batteries and other systems that hold electricity for hours or days.

9 materials2 tech

Materials

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The ground

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The economy

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