For most of this century, the debate about energy and mining has been framed around the energy transition such as cutting emissions from fossil fuels and, more recently, reducing reliance on imported fuel.
In this interview with Jonathan Rowlands of The Intelligent Miner, Clareo chairman Peter Bryant argues that framing is too narrow. In his view, the world is entering an age of energy expansion, not simply swapping one energy source for another.
Bryant points out several forces converging right now. About 730 million people still live without electricity, according to the IEA. Industrialization and urbanization across the Global South, re-shoring in the Global North, and the rapid growth of data centers and AI are all adding demand, on top of the shift to renewables and electrification. The result, he says, is an energy system far more dependent on copper, lithium, nickel, aluminum and rare earths than the one it is replacing.
So where will those minerals come from, and who will process them? Bryant’s answers challenge the assumption that opening new mines will secure Western supply.
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