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2026 is shaping up to be a ‘hot year for lithium.’ The metal, which is sometimes referred to as ‘white gold’ due to skyrocketing demand for the stuff, is integral in the production of all kinds of technology and clean energy manufacturing. You probably have at least one lithium-ion battery within arms reach at this very moment inside of your phone or smartwatch or any number of other rechargeable devices. And while lithium prices have been volatile for years as producers struggle to match production with demand growth,…
The Middle East war and the mother of all oil shocks—the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz—have exposed the global dependence on oil and gas as buyers scramble for cargoes and consumers once again bear the brunt of spiking energy prices. Before the war, the world had just overcome the energy system disruption from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the embargoes on Russian energy in most of the developed economies. Some thought this was the biggest energy shock this decade, and most governments placed energy security ahead of…
The war in Iran is sending shockwaves through global energy markets that will be felt for years to come. The conflict is causing the single biggest oil supply disruption in history, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused a nine-day disruption of 20 percent of the world’s oil transports, more-than doubling the previous record set during the Suez crisis of 1956. But the war and its energy market impacts represent much more than just economic chaos – they are also the harbingers of serious and lasting human and environmental…
In China’s new five-year plan, released Thursday, the world’s second-largest economy declared its aim to “lead global climate governance.” However, the targets laid out in the nation’s 15th five-year plan mark a cautious turn in China’s approach to energy strategy, reflecting the global cool-off on climate-related policy and a general sense of unease in energy markets. China is set to continue full-speed ahead in its renewable energy additions, but is fundamentally changing the way that it tracks progress on…
The Pentagon has taken a step toward rebuilding one of the most fragile links in the U.S. defense supply chain: the industrial capability to turn rare earth minerals into the metals that power most modern weapons systems. REAlloys (NASDAQ: ALOY) announced this week that the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has awarded a contract to Terves LLC–now part of the REAlloys platform–to advance next-generation metallothermal production of samarium and gadolinium, two rare earth metals embedded in some of the military’s most demanding systems.…
