Minerals ‘Super Region’ Could Threaten West, Say Analysts

JOHANNESBURG—The United States will face an uncertain future should a Saudi Arabia-led initiative aimed at creating a minerals “Super Region” be successful, say energy experts and geopolitical analysts. According to the Saudi plan, the world’s most mineral-rich regions—Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia—would band together to effectively control the supply of “rare earth” elements fundamental to modern life and the global energy transition. Critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt are essential components in many of today’s rapidly growing clean energy technologies, like wind turbines, and they’re used to manufacture electricity networks, cellphones, computers, electric vehicles, and batteries....