Blood Minerals

Daniel is fourteen when he first fills a sack with cobalt at the edge of a pit in Kolwezi. He does not know where it will go. By the time it reaches its final destination, it will have passed through traders, refineries, and corporate networks spanning three continents, gaining value at every stage while its origin disappears entirely.

Blood Minerals follows that journey. From the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo to trading firms, processing plants, and the policy rooms shaping the global race for critical minerals, it traces the hidden systems that connect everyday technology to the ground it comes from. It examines who controls each stage of that chain, how that control is exercised, and what it costs the people furthest from the finished product.

The competition over cobalt, lithium, nickel, and rare earth elements is already underway. It is quieter than conventional conflict, but no less consequential. This book brings that conflict into view.