Mining Is Dead, Long Live Geopolitical Mining
Review of Mining is Dead, Long Live Geopolitical Mining: Why Critical Minerals and Strategic Power will Define the Next Global Order by Marta Rivera and Eduardo Zamanillo
Mining Is Dead, Long Live Geopolitical Mining
Review of Mining is Dead, Long Live Geopolitical Mining: Why Critical Minerals and Strategic Power will Define the Next Global Order by Marta Rivera and Eduardo Zamanillo
Rivera and Zamanillo argue that the old model of mining—as a purely extractive, technical, and market-driven industry—is over. In its place has emerged geopolitical mining, where critical minerals are no longer just commodities, but instruments of power, sovereignty, and industrial strategy.
The authors trace how control over minerals now underpins national security, energy transition, and technological competitiveness. What matters is not simply exporting ores, but building integrated supply chains: refining, manufacturing, and technological ecosystems. Countries that succeed will set the terms of global power.
China is the clearest example. Through decades of state-backed industrial policy, it has turned minerals into leverage over supply chains and technologies. In contrast, Western nations have stumbled—hampered by regulatory gridlock, financial volatility, and a public narrative that still frames mining as a “necessary evil” rather than a foundation of modern life.
The book identifies four pillars for action:
Sovereign speed – accelerate permitting and project execution.
Integral legitimacy – reframe mining as essential to clean energy, digitalisation, and defence, while ensuring genuine community participation.
Industrial autonomy – capture value through domestic refining and manufacturing.
Strategic alliances – build resilience through international partnerships.
Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia are presented as battlegrounds where governance, resource nationalism, and foreign investment will determine whether countries become autonomous players or remain raw-material suppliers. The authors stress that states must act as strategic enablers—architects of industrial policy, legitimacy, and alliances—while companies must evolve into strategic navigators able to manage geopolitical complexity and build trust.
Their conclusion is stark: the old paradigm of mining as a neutral, technical sector is dead. In its place stands geopolitical mining, where critical minerals define the twenty-first-century map of power. Those who adapt with speed, legitimacy, and strategy will lead; those who do not will remain trapped in dependency and vulnerability.
My Reflections
While the book makes a compelling case, I take issue with some of its conclusions.
1. Refining and manufacturing.
The authors emphasise in-country refining as the antidote to the resource curse. In practice, refining and manufacturing are capital-, technology-, and energy-intensive. Many developing nations lack access to all three, and mandating local refining as a licence condition has often driven companies away, led to bankruptcies, or produced such marginal projects that resource rents never materialised.
China’s success is frequently misunderstood: its industrial capacity did not appear overnight. It began half a century ago with marginally profitable steel mills, slowly building infrastructure and supply chains, with ruthless attention to commercial viability. Crucially, it was Chinese capital financing this strategy—allowing tolerance for low margins in service of long-term state goals. Expecting foreign capital to behave the same way is unrealistic.
2. Illegal mining.
The book frames illegal mining as a failure of mining development policies. In reality, it is driven by poverty. Criminalising it merely drives activity underground, worsening working conditions and depriving governments of revenue. A more pragmatic solution is the formalisation of artisanal and small-scale miners.
3. Mining policy and industrial autonomy.
The authors suggest mining policy alone can deliver industrial autonomy. In truth, mining is one piece of a much larger puzzle. Recognition of mining’s importance is essential, but wielding it as a political weapon often backfires. Mining remains a highly technical, capital-intensive business with long lead times. China’s rise reflects a financed, coordinated, and decades-long plan—now 75 years into a 100-year strategy. Simply prioritising mining is not enough; only long-term, well-financed national industrial strategies, which mining is just one part of can deliver the winners in this race.
Chapter Overview
The book’s seven chapters span 240 pages:
When Mining Became Geopolitical – minerals as diplomatic tools, supply chain chokepoints, and national security imperatives.
China Saw It First – decades of state vision, supply chain dominance, and lessons in long-term planning.
What Happened to Mining in the West? – regulatory paralysis, loss of narrative, and attempts at recovery models.
Latin America’s Role – instability, raw exports, and the risk of remaining vulnerable.
Africa’s Window – consensus on mineral strategy, but fragmented governance and coordination challenges.
Asia Beyond China – disruptive policies, multi-vector diplomacy, and calculated risks.
The Era of Geopolitical Mining – seven strategic lessons, from speed to legitimacy, alliances, and technological integration.
Conclusion
Mining is Dead, Long Live Geopolitical Mining is an important contribution to the debate about minerals and power. It rightly insists that mining can no longer be understood as a neutral, technical sector—it is now a core driver of national security, energy transition, and global order.
I found it stimulating and thought-provoking, even where I disagree. The book makes clear that mining’s future will be shaped not just by geology and markets, but by strategy, legitimacy, and geopolitics.
For those of us working in this space, that’s both a warning and a call to action.
The book can be accessed via https://geopoliticalmining.com, thank you to the authors for kindly providing me with a copy.
I appreciate your take on the book. You’re right, it’s not just another book on mining, it really shifts the focus to how geopolitics and global strategy are now central to the industry. I also found the argument about traditional mining being “dead” compelling, especially with how they present a new framework for understanding resource control. It definitely challenges a lot of conventional thinking, and I think that’s what makes it stand out. good recomendation. thanks. Don.
Sometimes a book comes along that reframes the way you see the world. Mining Is Dead. Long Live Geopolitical Mining is one of those books. I picked it up after reading Dan Wang’s Breakneck, expecting both to give me a sense of how nations are competing to shape the future. What surprised me was how much Mining Is Dead exceeded my expectations — and how small Breakneck felt by comparison.
Wang is smart on China as an “engineering state” and the U.S. as a “lawyerly society,” but his canvas is narrow: mostly a China vs. America tale. Rivera and Zamanillo start with mining — a subject often treated as technical or niche — and then explode the scope outward. What they deliver is nothing less than a geopolitical map of the 21st century: who controls lithium, cobalt, copper, and rare earths; who builds legitimacy at home; and who can convert resources into real power through speed and industrialization.
This isn’t just a mining book. It’s a book about strategy, sovereignty, and the silent foundations of the next technological era. I found myself underlining lines about “speed as power” and “mining that performs but does not inspire.” These phrases capture why some countries are surging ahead while others stall in bureaucracy.
If you want a book that moves beyond rhetoric and actually explains the material foundations of geopolitics, this is it. I came to it because of a comparison with Breakneck; I stayed with it because it gave me the full picture I was hoping Wang would deliver.