Running discussion on SP, page-9555

Well you see in the 20th Century Oil was (and still is now) the critical energy commodity. Most was/is supplied from the volatile cauldron that is the middle east/arab countries. Hence you've seen decades of world powers intervening in the affairs of these states to ensure/protect supply.

Once the world becomes irreversibly "addicted" to new energy minerals in a few years time and in particular Lithium and Cobalt you will see a similar political/economic (and dare I say military?) intervention in major supply based countries if required. In fact forward thinking Chinese are already in African countries providing economic support. The more backward thinking western economies are starting to realize their folly I think.

So the fact that key commodities are mainly supplied by some 3rd world countries will not constrain the new energy juggernaut from rolling on. It will simply be no different than what we have now in the middle east....history will repeat. The 3rd world is no barrier to the world wide supply/demand equation.