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Capital in the Twenty-First Century: Who Owns the Capital of Firms Producing Critical Raw Materials?

Author

Listed:
  • Violaine Faubert
  • Nathan Guess
  • Julien Le Roux

Abstract

This paper analyses who controls the capital of global listed companies involved in the mining of critical raw materials (CRM). While the very high geographical concentration of resources is well documented, the ownership interests in extractive companies is less so. Yet documenting the sources of control of mining companies is essential for assessing strategic dependencies. We contribute to fill this gap by developing a detailed database documenting the origins and characteristics of shareholders of global listed companies involved in the mining of cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths. We designed several indicators for the sake of robustness, including production- and market capitalization-weighted holding rates, complemented by indicators focusing on majority holdings thresholds. In fact, holding shares above a certain threshold allows investors to exert a strong influence on the decisions of their executive boards. We highlight the discrepancy that can prevail between the geographical distribution of production and that of investors. We also document the preponderance of strategic investors like state-owned enterprises in the ownership of CRM firms. All indicators suggest that non-EU investors control a significant share of the capital of the leading CRM mining companies. Our results underpin the need to enhance the EU s strategic autonomy and suggest a need for a metal-specific strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Violaine Faubert & Nathan Guess & Julien Le Roux, 2024. "Capital in the Twenty-First Century: Who Owns the Capital of Firms Producing Critical Raw Materials?," Working papers 952, Banque de France.
  • Handle: RePEc:bfr:banfra:952
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    File URL: https://www.banque-france.fr/system/files/2024-07/WP952_0.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pauline Bucciarelli & Emmanuel Hache & Valérie Mignon, 2024. "Evaluating criticality of strategic metals: Are the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index and usual concentration thresholds still relevant?," Working Papers hal-04452384, HAL.
    2. Leruth, Luc & Mazarei, Adnan & Regibeau, Pierre & Renneboog, Luc, 2022. "Green Energy Depends on Critical Minerals. Who Controls the Supply Chains?," Other publications TiSEM 61051d4e-26c6-4cbd-b039-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Gary A. Campbell, 2020. "The cobalt market revisited," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 33(1), pages 21-28, July.
    4. Przemyslaw Kowalski & Clarisse Legendre, 2023. "Raw materials critical for the green transition: Production, international trade and export restrictions," OECD Trade Policy Papers 269, OECD Publishing.
    5. K. Buysse & D. Essers, 2023. "Critical raw materials : from dependency to open strategic autonomy ?," Economic Review, National Bank of Belgium, pages 1-35, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Weber, Pierre-François & Afota, Amandine & Boeckelmann, Lukas & De Gaye, Annabelle & Dieppe, Alistair & Faubert, Violaine & Grieco, Fabio & Le Roux, Julien & Meunier, Baptiste & Munteanu, Bogdan & Nob, 2025. "The intersection between climate transition policies and geoeconomic fragmentation," Occasional Paper Series 366, European Central Bank.
    2. Marco Taboga, 2024. "The potential macroeconomic relevance of critical materials: some preliminary evidence," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 897, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Energy Transition; Critical Raw Materials; Geo-Economic Fragmentation; Ownership; Economic Security; Strategic Autonomy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q02 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Commodity Market
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • L72 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Other Nonrenewable Resources
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • Q3 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation

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