REEx Assessment: Everyone Wants to Move Up the Critical-Minerals Value Chain. Few Countries Are Actually Ready.

Highlights

• CRU and World Bank identify five minimum gates for bankable smelting and refining projects: infrastructure, feedstock, CAPEX, OPEX, and policy credibility.
• China holds major cost and execution advantages in midstream processing due to its established equipment, engineering, and industrial ecosystem.
• Country cases show Indonesia succeeding via industrial parks, while Zambia, Peru, and Zimbabwe each face distinct barriers to moving up the value chain.
• Geology alone does not create industrial advantage—competitive refining requires power, logistics, skilled labor, technology, and finance working together.