China Should Ensure Secure Supply of Strategic Minerals: Daily

China should maintain a core area to supply key natural resources such as lithium and nickel and create a reliable system of reserves and delivery to sustain its industrialization and shift toward an electricity-powered economy, the Economic Daily said in its front-page editorial. The global supply of these minerals may be difficult to match the surging demand for cleantech, and the supplying regions are also highly concentrated, said the official newspaper. The security of mineral supply has been elevated to a national-level strategy at the recently convened Politburo meeting, said the commentary under the pseudonym of Jin Guanping. The background of the issue was due to the global shift to clean energy, boosting demand for lithium, nickel, cobalt and molybdenum, while the electrification raised the demand for copper, said the newspaper.