The global shift to clean energy has transformed lithium, nickel, and similar minerals into critical resources for electric vehicles and renewable technologies. This transition offers resource-rich nations an unprecedented opportunity to move beyond traditional extractive models for building their economies. Rather than simply exporting raw materials, countries like Chile, Ghana, Indonesia, and the Philippines are exploring ways to capture more value through domestic processing, refining, and manufacturing. Many governments now explicitly link their mineral wealth to ambitions in EV supply chains, while importing nations simultaneously seek to secure supplies and dominate key value chain segments, creating both partnership opportunities and intensified competition.
However, converting mineral deposits into meaningful local economic development remains challenging. A 2026 report from WDI, “From Ore to Opportunity: Value Addition Dilemmas and Pathways for Resource Rich Countries,” contends that “value addition” has become more aspirational rhetoric than practical reality in policy circles. Current research emphasizes enabling conditions like infrastructure, stable policies, and favorable investment climates, but rarely addresses the fundamental dilemmas and trade-offs embedded in different approaches. By examining lithium and nickel development strategies across four nations with distinct geological formations, governance structures, and economic contexts, this report reveals the dilemmas that contrasting pathways for value-addition strategies in the context of the EV transition present, moving beyond simplistic assumptions to understand the complex choices these countries actually face.
In the following report authors Diana E. Páez, WDI Senior Director, Energy & Mobility; Dana Gorodetsky, WDI Program Manager, Energy & Mobility; and Gerald E. Arhin, Research Fellow in the Political Economy of Climate Compatible Development, University College London; explore the critical dilemmas countries face, share lessons from their comparative analysis, and offer guidance for policymakers navigating these complex choices.
