PARIS, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Global demand for critical minerals continued to grow strongly in 2025, while investment in the sector posted its first substantial decline in five years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.
According to the agency's Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 report, demand for key energy minerals, including copper, battery materials and rare earths, remained robust in 2025. Growth was driven by expanding use in energy technologies such as EV batteries and energy storage, electricity grids, wind turbines and solar photovoltaic systems, as well as permanent magnets for high-performance applications.
The report said critical mineral prices rebounded in 2025 and early 2026 after declining in recent years.
Despite strong demand, investment in critical minerals fell by 9 percent in 2025, marking the first substantial decline in recent years. The IEA attributed the drop largely to renewed market volatility in 2024 and 2025, which exposed structural uncertainties in critical mineral supply chains and complicated investment decisions.
The report also warned that the conflict in the Middle East has underscored the vulnerability arising from concentrated supply chains and geopolitical tensions, noting that the region is a major supplier of key materials and feedstocks, including aluminum, sulfur and helium.
Governments are playing an increasingly active role in supporting the sector through public financing, the report said, with public finance commitments for critical mineral projects in advanced economies reaching around 65 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, more than four times the level recorded in 2023.
Looking ahead, the IEA expects demand for critical minerals to remain strong under all of its scenarios, with demand nearly doubling by 2040 under the Stated Policies Scenario.
However, the report identified structural imbalances in efforts to diversify supply chains. While mining capacity is expanding across a wider range of regions, refining and downstream manufacturing capacity remain concentrated and limited.
The IEA said governments could improve the commercial viability of diversified supply chains by combining supply-side support with demand-side measures and stressed that successful diversification will require closing gaps in technology, equipment and skilled labor throughout the value chain.
In addition, the IEA said recycling could play an increasingly important role in easing supply constraints. Under current policy settings, average recycling rates for key energy minerals are projected to increase from around 10 percent today to nearly 20 percent by 2040, potentially allowing secondary supply to double its contribution by that time. ■
