01
Raw materialWhat it is and where it sits in the ground
02
DepositThe mineral that actually carries it
03
MineWho digs it up, and how
04
ProcessingCrushing, floating, smelting
05
RefiningGetting to a usable purity
06
ComponentThe part it becomes
07
ProductThe thing you can buy
08
End marketWho needs it and why
09
CompanyWho owns the assets
Want the borders too?
These pages give the general shape of a chain. For a specific consignment — which countries held it, who owned it at each handover, and what was left behind — follow a
custody journey.
Lithium to Electric Vehicle
From a salt flat or a granite pegmatite to the pack under a car floor.
Copper to the Grid
From 0.5% rock to 99.99% cathode to the wire in a wall.
Rare Earths to Electric Motor
Seventeen near-identical elements, separated one at a time, ending as a magnet in a wheel.
Nickel to Battery Cathode
Two ore types, two processing routes, and a wall between them that took twenty years to break.
Sand to Semiconductor
Ordinary quartz to a crystal so pure that one stray atom in a billion is a defect.
Iron Ore to Steel
The largest material flow on Earth, and the hardest one to decarbonise.
Uranium to Electricity
Yellow powder to a fuel pellet the size of a fingertip that holds as much energy as a tonne of coal.
Phosphate to Food
A finite rock, a chemical plant, and the yield of every field on Earth.