The market for minerals that help power electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and other technologies key to the clean energy transition has doubled in size to $320 billion over the past five years, according to IEA’s first annual Critical Minerals Market Review.

The new assessment – part of Agency’s ongoing leadership on critical minerals – shows that record deployment of clean energy technologies is propelling huge demand for lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper, among other minerals. From 2017 to 2022, overall demand for lithium tripled. Cobalt saw a 70% jump in demand, while nickel logged a 40% rise. In response, investment in critical mineral development rose 30% last year, following a 20% increase in 2021 – an encouraging trend, though more work needs to be done to ensure supply chains for critical minerals are secure and sustainable, according to our report. 

/IEA/