Resource nationalism has increasingly taken on a geopolitical dimension, forcing traditionally free-market nations to scramble to ensure a steady flow of commodities to supply growing green-tech industries. Today’s GR Insight analyzes steps industrialized countries are taking in response to nationalizations of lithium and rare earth elements.

Resource nationalism is entering a new era.  From national strategies to control newly valued materials to state control over a range of energy resources, recent steps taken by governments make clear that a new competition for resource control is taking place.  This has heightened importance in an age of booming demand, resource competition, and a rapidly shifting energy paradigm which has created new dependence on once niche materials like lithium and rare earth metals. With approximately 90 percent of precious metals currently under national or state-dominated energy companies, the wealth associated with these resources is shifting the balance of economic might towards state ownership and setting off a chase in countries that have been left out.  In the first of a series of reports on the nexus between state ownership of resources and the impacts on markets, Garten Rothkopf explores the impact of state control on the ability to access critical resources. 

Bolivian Lithium

While the nationalization of Bolivia’s natural gas sector at the beginning of the Morales administration had an immediate impact both on the businesses active in the development of these resources and the supply security of neighboring countries, perhaps of greater significance will be the government’s position on the country’s vast lithium reserves. Morales has also made clear his intention to keep Bolivia’s lithium reserves – which comprise over half the world’s proven reserves – completely off limits to foreign developers.  However, the country has not yet proven it can overcome significant hurdles to become a competitor to major producing states like Chile and Argentina, which together provide more than half of the world’s current lithium production.


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