The Amazon and the new mineral resource order

This Global Futures Bulletin examines how the Amazon is increasingly framed not only as an environmental asset but as a strategic source of minerals essential to the energy transition and modern defence systems. This dual demand – clean energy and hard security – has elevated mining policy from an industrial concern to an instrument of statecraft.

Deposits of copper, nickel, bauxite, manganese, niobium and rare earth elements have gained geopolitical relevance amid global competition and efforts to diversify supply chains, driven by rising demand from clean energy technologies and advanced military systems.

Spanning eight countries, the Amazon Basin presents varied regulatory capacities but shared vulnerabilities. Mining expansion often overlaps with Indigenous territories and protected areas, while transport infrastructure linked to extraction accelerates deforestation, land grabbing and illicit trade. Brazil plays a central role due to its large mineral endowment and industrial base, yet faces significant risks related to weak enforcement, licensing reforms and socioenvironmental conflict.

Across countries such as Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, illegal mining is closely tied to organized crime, mercury pollution and armed groups, undermining governance and supply-chain integrity. At the global level, competition between major powers, particularly the United States and China, is reshaping mineral diplomacy through trade instruments, financing and strategic partnerships. The text argues that the Amazon’s mineral future is fundamentally a governance challenge: outcomes will depend on institutional strength, control of illicit economies, robust environmental safeguards, Indigenous consent and inclusive benefit-sharing, rather than on geology alone.

 

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