Peru's foreign minister Elmer Schialer today said he supports US policy backing Saudi Arabia's efforts to become a global critical minerals powerhouse, a strategy that aims to counterbalance China's dominance and bring down costs.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Schialer called the US approach "a good strategy". Schialer was responding to a question on whether the US' backing of Saudi Arabia's efforts to become a critical minerals refining and processing hub was a good idea.
"I think we ought to give it a try, because when we have two, three or four main centers of refinement and the finalizing the product, the cost will also eventually go down, which is also very important, economically speaking," Schialer said.
Led by the US, western countries are keen to loosen China's stranglehold on access to critical minerals. China controls about 90pc of the world's capacity for processing the minerals and has steadily tightened restrictions on exporting the materials and technology needed to process them.
Beijing imposed new restrictions on exports to the US in late January in response to President Donald Trump's tariffs on imports to the US from China.
Saudi Arabia in recent years has made strides in positioning itself on the global critical minerals map. As part of its economic diversification plan Vision 2030, the kingdom aims to strengthen local processing and industrial value added, while building supply chains that are more resilient to global disruptions. Saudi Arabia also has reiterated its commitment to developing its substantial reserves of copper, gold, rare earths, potash, and bauxite, while also expanding domestic electric vehicle manufacturing.
Riyadh in January unveiled plans to develop a new mineral investment project valued at $100bn, $20bn of which was already in the final engineering phase or under construction.
The kingdom's Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources increased its estimate of the value of its unexploited mineral resources from $1.3 trillion to $2.5 trillion in early 2024, boosted by new discoveries.
State-controlled Aramco has also created a joint venture with Saudi state mining company Ma'aden to explore and produce energy transition minerals.
