This is the Dawning of the Age of … Niobium?

Sharon Burke and Rachel Zimmerman wrote for Slate on China's strategic investments in the critical mineral competitive space.

On the campaign trail, Brazil’s newly elected President Jair Bolsonaro loved to talk about a particular vision for shoring up his country’s struggling economy: “Niobium Valley.” Brazil is the main supplier of niobium to the entire global economy, as Bolsonaro frequently reminded his audiences, sometimes while waving around a little chunk of the nondescript gray metal that he kept in his carry-on luggage for just such occasions. He even made a 20-minute YouTube video about it.

If you care about the future of your smartphone, you might want to pay attention to what President-elect Bolsonaro does next with his country’s niobium riches.

That’s because niobium is one of a host of minerals that are pivotal for powering our modern lives—and modern militaries, as well. Today, the global economy depends on a veritable periodic table of once-unfamiliar metals for the function of all things high tech, from your smartphone to orthopedic implants to precision guided missiles. As a recent piece in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences suggested, the world has entered a new resource-centric era: farewell to the Bronze Age and even the Age of Oil, and welcome to the Critical Mineral Age.