As the global energy transition continues to accelerate, the demand for key battery metals is soaring and demand is struggling to keep up. The inconvenient truth of the energy transition is that the industry at the top of the clean energy supply chain is a very carbon-intensive one. President Biden, recognizing this reality, has added strategic and critical metals to the Defence Production Act of 1950. The metals mining industry is at a crossroads. Key energy transition metals need trillions of U.S. dollars in investment if the world has any chance of advancing the transition to meet the Paris Agreement targets. At the same time, investors are backing out of carbon-intensive sectors, which metals mining undoubtedly is. Moreover, governments in developed nations with net-zero goals—including the U.S. Administration—want only “sustainable” new domestic mining to extract the minerals critical to support increased transportation electrification and renewable power generation aligned with […]