What will be the next frontier amid escalating US-China strategic competition? As US national security advisor Jake Sullivan singled out critical minerals – the backbone of clean energy – in one breath with semiconductors in his remarks in April 2023 on „renewing American economic leadership“ at the Brookings Institution, no one would doubt critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite would become the next frontier where the US was determined to compete with China to make the respective supply chains more resilient and secure.