OPEC-style Organization of Mineral Exporters | Shahid Bolsen

Well, steps have to be taken. Real steps. Organizational steps have to be taken to manage the transition that's happening. Because as I said, the transition is gonna happen either way. No matter what, the transition is happening.

The transition of the global economy. The movement of the economic center of gravity to the South and to the East and away from the West. The only real battle now is over management of that transition. You know, we talk about psychological decolonization because of course we do, but economic sovereignty is the real world byproduct and it's the proof of and it's the actualization of decolonization. You know, seizing control of your own economic power.

And now is the time to do it. You need to do that now. The global South is geologically blessed, everyone knows that. But if you wanna turn that geological blessing into power and sovereignty, then you need to organize and you need to control that. We're tired of watching our earth get dug up and sold for cheap, only to be bought back by us as finished goods for a 100 times the price.

You know, we're tired of being called resource rich while our treasuries are empty. That doesn't make any sense. And we're tired of so called resource nationalism being treated like it's some kind of a rebellion against you, against the West. No. It's basic sovereignty.

We shouldn't be shy about that. It's absolutely appalling, that the the countries of the global South are expected to beg for for better terms. Now, this is the most fundamental law of economic power. We have to understand it. Control the thing that everyone needs and you control the conversation.

They need our minerals for their technology, for their green revolution and so forth. For their batteries, for their wind turbines, for their weapons. Without your nickel, their electric cars don't run. Without your lithium, their, power grid doesn't store power. Without your rare earths, their, all of their advanced technology is useless.

So why are you acting like beggars at a feast when you're the one providing the ingredients that makes the feast? No. You're the hosts. The West is completely dependent upon you. They always have been.

But look at it. I mean, seriously, what look look at what Allah has placed under your feet. Nickel, cobalt, lithium, copper, rare earths, bauxite, chrome, graphite, everything. The keys to everything with a battery, everything with a motor, everything that makes technology work at all is under your feet. The modern world isn't powered by Western ideology, it's powered by the periodic table and the periodic table is clustered in our lands.

You understand? The periodic table is under your feet when you walk to work. So I mean, think about it. Look at OPEC, for example, what they did with oil. Oil is just one of the necessary ingredients of the global economy.

Look, they come into our countries like a a disciplined gang of smash and grab artists, know. It's coordinated, it's organized. These are professional criminals we're talking about. It's a professional criminal gang. Well, if the pillage is coordinated, why isn't the stewardship of the resources coordinated?

Just like OPEC. I mean, the criminals are organized, so the owners of the resources that are being pillaged should also be organized. I mean, imagine, why not have an OPEC for minerals? You know, an organization of rare and essential commodities, OREC, a kind of mining OPEC. Why not?

OPEC style organization of states, the states that possess all the rare earths and the minerals and the essential commodities and so forth. Just coordinate it. I mean, Indonesia, DRC, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Guinea, Brazil, from pithead to port. We can speak with one voice on supply. I'm not talking about rigid quotas, but controlled output, so we don't flood the market and undercut each other.

Just like with OPEC, we defend a price floor that reflects the true cost of our of our resources. Not just the cost of extraction, but the cost on our environment and our people and our future. If you're organized, then you can industrialize. The goal should be that the raw minerals, the raw ore, never leaves our shores. It gets refined here.

It gets turned into precursors here. It gets forged into components here. You understand? We'll build the reef the the the refineries, the magnet plants, the finished products. We'll do that in our own countries.

You know, we can you can impose a condition. Within three years, half of what you export has to be a processed product, not raw minerals. Because our countries are not just your quarry. Our countries are the foundation of a new industrial base of the global South. We wanna build our nations, but you just want our nations to be holes in the ground.

Then you can stabilize something like that with a fund, know, just put a small levy on exports and build a war chest. You could use that money, that fund to compensate any member state that that sort of acts as a swing producer that holds back their own output to defend the prices for everyone. And you can build a stockpile, a strategic stockpile just like a sovereign wealth fund. So that whenever prices might crash and they might, then you buy. And when they spike, you can sell.

Then you can smooth out the fiscal cycles, the economic cycles that have been breaking our backs for decades. Oh, yes, they'll scream and shout. They'll call it a cartel, say it's price manipulation, it's a syndicate and what have you. They'll call us names, you know, they'll threaten us with anti trust actions and so forth. They'll always look for try ways to try to break your back.

So what? Let them. You can base your authority on the on the WTO's own rules. The right to protect exhaustible natural resources. You have the right to do that.

That's not price fixing. That's ensuring sustainability and global supply security. You could create a a an OREC premium, ethical mining, traceable supply chains, on and on, you know. A fair return for your resources. This is about upgrading every single facet of our power according to the metrics of the relative power index of the nation.

Decision authority, you'll have that. You'll have decision authority. If you have the ability to to to set export norms, that's real power. Control of inputs, obviously you'll have that, especially if you can move refining onshore, then you have full consolidation of control. And with narrative control you can have that certification I just said, price reporting, ethical standards, that becomes the new standard.

And you'll have immunity from retaliation, you can trade in local currencies, you can diversify your buyers, and you stand together. Their leverage completely dissolves in the face of our unity, that's what they did with OPEC. Why, in just twelve months, you could move from a statement of intent to a functioning policy force. I'm telling you. A joint statement from Indonesia and the DRC over nickel and cobalt processing, a unified price corridor from the lithium triangle.

Okay? A PGM working group between South Africa and Zimbabwe. This is all doable. Okay? I'm just brainstorming, but this is doable.

And the message to the world would be simple. We can guarantee sustainable availability of our resources through predictable pricing. You know, your energy transition depends upon our minerals, but it has to be built upon a foundation of mutual respect, not exploitation. Yes, you've got the West over a barrel, but they've had you in a hole for centuries. I'm not talking about being vindictive.

I'm not talking about punishing anyone. This isn't about punishing anyone. It's about governing what Allah has entrusted to you with intelligence. And it's about collective sovereignty. It's about organizing together.

I mean, seriously, tell me why there shouldn't be a mining OPEC, a mineral OPEC. This is literally just stating the obvious. It's very obvious that this should be done. But you're stating the obvious that it's never supposed to be stated as long as you don't talk about it, as long as you don't say it, then we can all pretend that it makes sense to not do it. No.

From Argentina to Indonesia, there should be a mineral producing and mineral exporting block that works all together just like OPEC.