Demand for key energy minerals such as copper, battery materials and rare earths continued to grow strongly in 2025. Their increasing use in energy technologies, including batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage, electricity infrastructure such as grids, wind turbines and solar PV, and permanent magnets for high-performance applications, drove this trend. Deployment of renewables, grids and electric cars continued to expand in 2025, with solar PV breaking new records. Global battery demand grew by over 35% in 2025, surpassing 1.5 TWh, with battery storage emerging as a major driver of demand growth. As a result, demand for key energy minerals has grown at close to 10% per year on average in recent years, significantly outpacing demand growth for base metals, which averaged around 1% annually. Lithium demand has been particularly strong, increasing by around 25% per year on average over the past two years. Across key energy minerals, the energy sector drove, on average, around 75% of demand growth in 2025, up from 70% in 2024.

Refining concentration across energy minerals reached new record levels in 2025. The average share of the top refined supplier stood reaching 70% in 2025, up from 68% in 2020. This is the result of several years of concentrated supply growth in recent years, driven by the top producers – Indonesia for nickel and China for most other key energy minerals – which together accounted for over three‑quarters of total supply growth between 2023 and 2025. In several markets, including manganese, nickel and graphite, almost all supply growth originated from the leading supplier. Rare earth refining was a notable exception, with new projects in the United States and production increases in Malaysia leading to a modest decline in supply concentration between 2023 and 2025, highlighting the role of targeted policy and investment support in enabling diversification.

The conflict in the Middle East highlights the vulnerabilities arising from concentrated supply chains and geopolitical tensions, as the region is a major supplier of key materials and feedstocks. Before the conflict, exports from the region accounted for more than 10% of total aluminium supply for the European Union, Japan, Korea and Mexico, and just under 20% for the United States. The region also produces one-quarter of global sulphur supply, with half of global seaborne sulphur trade passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Disruptions to exports have affected countries that rely on imported sulphur to produce sulphuric acid, which is used in fertiliser production, the leaching of key metals, such as copper, nickel and cobalt, and the production of rare earths and battery chemicals. The resulting increases in aluminium, sulphur prices, and sulphuric acid prices have increased production costs and heightened supply risks across metals and battery-material value chains. Helium production in Qatar, the world’s largest exporter, was disrupted, with impacts on semiconductor manufacturing and medical technologies. The energy crisis caused by the conflict also had effects on mineral mining and processing operations.

At the same time, investment in critical minerals fell by 9% in 2025, marking the first substantial decline since 2020. This was largely due to renewed volatility in 2024‑25, which exposed structural uncertainties around critical mineral supply chains and complicated investment decisions. However, there are marked differences by company type and commodity. Companies focused on battery materials –lithium, nickel and cobalt – drove the decline with a 20% decrease, while lithium specialists reduced investment by around 40% following several years of strong growth. This reflects a combination of shifting battery chemistry preferences, oversupply-driven price weakness and policy uncertainty in key markets, all of which have weighed on investor confidence in battery material markets. On the other hand, companies focused on copper registered an increase of 8% year-on-year, underscoring investor confidence in copper’s long-term growth given its central role in electricity systems. Exploration spending followed similar trends, falling by 10% driven by notable drops of about 40% for lithium and nickel while copper remained steady.