Race to the Future: What to Know About the Frantic Quest for Cobalt

The clean energy revolution is replacing oil and gas with a new global force: the minerals and metals needed in electric car batteries, solar panels and other forms of renewable energy.

Places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, which produces two-thirds of the world’s supply of cobalt, for example, are stepping into the kinds of roles once played by Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich nations. And a race between China and the United States to secure supplies could have far-reaching implications for the shared goal of protecting the planet.

An investigation by The New York Times drew on interviews with more than 100 people on three continents and thousands of pages of financial, diplomatic and other documents. Here are some of the findings.

The United States is vulnerable to price shocks and supply shortages as it embraces green energy.

The American government failed to safeguard decades of diplomatic and financial investments it had made in Congo, even as China was positioning itself to dominate the new electric vehicle era.

The sale, starting in 2016, of two major cobalt reserves in Congo by an American mining giant to a Chinese conglomerate marked the end of any major U.S. mining presence in cobalt in the country.

Chinese battery makers have forged agreements with the mining companies to secure steady supplies of the metal.