Pick a Material and Follow It
Eight materials, one structure. What each is at every point, what it is worth, what chemistry moves it forward, and who does that step.
Ore to Vehicle · Part 1 — The Template · Chapter 2 · 10 min read
Each chain below shows the same six stages: what the material is at each point, what it is worth, what chemistry moves it forward, and who does that step.
Flip between them and the shared skeleton becomes obvious — which is the point, because the chemistry could hardly be more different.
8
Materials
6
Stages each
1
Shared structure
mid-2026
Shares as of
2.1 — Eight chains, one structure
2.2 — How to read it
Important
Country shares are approximate and move year to year. The shape of each chain is the durable part — which stage concentrates, and how much more concentrated each downstream stage is than the one before it.
Two patterns are worth looking for as you switch between materials. First, the country label changes as you move right along almost every chain: mining is one place, conversion is another. Second, the share figure usually rises as you move right — most starkly for rare earths, where mining is around 70 per cent and magnet manufacture is above 90.
The chapters that follow take each of these chains in turn and give the reactions, the economics and the failure modes behind the summary shown here.
Quick check: test yourself
1.What is the durable information in this figure, and what is not?
Show answer
2.Flipping between copper and rare earths, what is the most striking difference?
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Chapter summary
- ✓Eight chemically unrelated materials move through the same six stages, and the similarity of shape is the point.
- ✓What changes between them is which stage is hard and who performs it.
- ✓Country shares are approximate and move; the structure does not.
- ✓Downstream shares generally exceed upstream ones — concentration compounds as you move toward the component.
Frequently asked questions
How much do the eight chains actually differ?+
Less than the chemistry suggests. All eight move through the same six stages, and what changes is which stage is hard and who performs it. Copper’s difficulty is at stage 1 because grades are falling; lithium’s is at stage 3 because conversion chemistry is fiddly and slow; rare earths’ is at stage 4 because separating chemically identical elements needs a plant the size of a refinery; graphite’s is at stage 5 because rounding a flake wastes two-thirds of it.
Should the country shares be treated as precise?+
No. They are approximate, they move year to year, and they should be read as orders of magnitude rather than as a ledger. The durable information is structural — which stage concentrates, and how much more concentrated each downstream stage is than the one before it.
Reviewed by
Ore to Vehicle is an original educational series on the battery and EV materials supply chain. Country shares, grades, prices and policy status are approximate, drawn from public reporting as of mid-2026, and move year to year — treat them as orders of magnitude rather than as a ledger, and verify before relying on them commercially.