EP 119 — Baker Institute's Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes On Why Critical Minerals Are The Weakest Link In Western Defense Supply Chains

<p>Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes drilled the first unconventional wells in Argentina for ExxonMobil, built a nickel mining company in Western Australia, then served as DOE Deputy Director for Batteries and Critical Materials. Today she advises on critical mineral policy as a Nonresident Fellow at Rice University&#39;s Baker Institute and invests across the critical supply chain through her family office, Smoketree Resources.</p><p><br></p><p>Ashley lays out a three-step framework for breaking Western dependence on adversarial-controlled supply chains, starting with an allied definition of adversarial capital and ending with import controls on finished goods in defense and semiconductor applications.</p><p><br></p><p>Topics discussed:</p><ul><li><p>How China weaponized copper smelting economics through zero TCRCs</p></li><li><p>Why 99% of global crude gallium production sits in China</p></li><li><p>A three-step framework for bifurcating critical mineral markets</p></li><li><p>Why public markets are rewarding supply chain security stories</p></li><li><p>The difference between critical minerals and rare earths</p></li><li><p>Why government backstopping alone cannot scale to 60 minerals</p></li><li><p>Reimagining smelter revenue models through capacity-based agreements</p></li><li><p>Building a mining company from scratch in Western Australia</p><p><br></p></li></ul><p><strong>Listen to more episodes: </strong></p><p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dib-innovators/id1720062726"><u>Apple </u></a></p><p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Z3PpCHsglA3uk2S6dCRBP"><u>Spotify </u></a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX2eBOnzz1SX0Psj6BmbdCw"><u>YouTube</u></a></p><p><a href="https://radicl.com/dib-innovators-podcast"><u>Website</u></a></p>