Colombia’s Critical Minerals Could Be a Game Changer for America

Since taking office, Colombia’s far-right president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has moved aggressively to restore ties with Washington after relations frayed under Gustavo Petro. The rapprochement revives a decades-old strategic alliance that made Colombia one of Washington’s closest partners in Latin America. Early last month, the two countries agreed to deepen cooperation on critical minerals, including rare earths, tungsten and antimony. The move aligns with De la Espriella’s pledge to revive Colombia’s economically vital oil industry.

The timing is no coincidence. With depleted U.S. military arsenals and conflicts raging on multiple fronts, particularly in the Middle East, Washington is scrambling to secure supplies of the critical minerals needed to manufacture weapons and replenish dwindling munitions stockpiles. The agreement aims to unlock Colombia’s considerable critical-mineral potential by accelerating mining projects, improving cooperation on identifying viable deposits and mobilizing the investment needed to bring them into production.

The framework targets bottlenecks across the critical minerals supply chain, from improved geological mapping and access to advanced mining technology to streamlined permitting for new projects. The deal also promotes the recycling of critical minerals, an increasingly important source. Around 8% of U.S. antimony supply comes from recycled lead-acid batteries, with 91% being imported. The deal further addresses pricing and measures to build resilient supply chains while countering anti-market practices.

The 2025 List of Critical Minerals, compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and published by the Department of the Interior, identifies 60 minerals deemed vital to the U.S. economy and national security. Antimony and tungsten are crucial to manufacturing munitions and weapons systems, making secure supplies a strategic necessity. Gallium, germanium and cobalt are essential to semiconductors as well as other advanced electronics underpinning the AI revolution. Lithium is equally indispensable, powering the rechargeable batteries driving the technology revolution.

China’s dominance of critical mineral global supply chains, including the mining and processing of many elements, gives Beijing considerable geopolitical leverage. Beijing demonstrated the power of that leverage when it imposed export restrictions on gallium, germanium and antimony destined for the United States, exposing Washington’s dependence on Chinese-controlled supply chains. Although the restrictions were subsequently suspended, the reprieve is temporary, with the suspension due to expire on November 27, 2026.

Washington is racing to secure critical mineral supplies to counter Beijing’s growing leverage over those strategic resources. Colombia is emerging as a pivotal ally in that contest, offering Washington an opportunity to secure vital mineral supplies while reinforcing U.S. hegemony across the Americas. Colombia’s newly inaugurated President De la Espriella has signaled his determination to forge closer ties with the Trump administration. He has aligned Colombia with the Shield of the Americas, a U.S.-led regional security initiative, and committed to joint military operations.

Colombia’s largely untapped mineral wealth offers a rare strategic opportunity to secure vital resources close to Washington, which will strengthen U.S. economic and military security. Despite its long history of oil and coal extraction, Colombia’s mining sector remains largely undeveloped. The country’s deposits of silver, platinum, nickel and copper serve key defense, aerospace and technology industries, while tungsten, antimony, cobalt, manganese and magnesium are vital to weapons systems, batteries and advanced electronics.

Paradoxically, Colombia’s decades of armed conflict exposed the country’s largely untapped critical mineral wealth. In Guainía department, near the Venezuelan border, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) earned considerable revenue from commercially mining tungsten at the Tiger Hill site for nearly a decade. The extracted mineral was sold to intermediaries for shipment to overseas buyers. In 2014, Bogota seized and shuttered the operation, which has yet to be reopened.

Military offensives exposed other aspects of the FARC’s financially important illicit mineral trade. The leftist insurgents mined cobalt and coltan along Colombia’s borders with Venezuela and Brazil. Raids in 2015 disrupted the operations, and the FARC demobilized under a 2016 peace deal, but the mines survived. Other illegal armed groups, including FARC dissidents who rejected the 2016 accord, continue to exploit the sites or extort payments from the local communities running them.

Cobalt is in high demand for battery production and heat-resistant alloys. In Africa, the scramble to extract the metal has been linked to armed conflict and human rights abuses. Coltan, an ore containing tantalum and niobium, is equally strategic, with both elements listed on the U.S. Critical Minerals List. Tantalum is essential to miniaturize electronics, where tiny capacitors store electrical charge. Niobium strengthens lightweight, high-performance steel alloys used in industries ranging from automotive manufacturing to advanced engineering.

A wave of discoveries over the past two decades has revealed the scale of Colombia’s largely untapped critical-mineral wealth. Among the most important is a high-grade deposit of tungsten, gold, silver, and copper identified in Colombia’s Caldas department. At Collective Mining’s Guayabales project, drilling of the Apollo system returned solid results from the first eight holes of a 30-hole exploration program. The miner reported that the upper 150 meters of the system contain a high-grade zone enriched in all four metals.

The discovery marks a strategic turning point by identifying Colombia’s first known hard-rock tungsten deposit. If commercially viable, it could propel the Andean nation into a global market facing surging demand, with the payoff extending to higher export revenues and government royalties. Tungsten is vital to military applications, including armour-piercing ammunition, armor, and jet-engine turbine components. Developing the deposit will strengthen the economy while giving Bogotá greater geopolitical leverage in the global race for critical minerals.

Royal Road Minerals’ Güíntar-Aleman-Margaritas (GAM) project, fifty kilometres west of Medellín, is another promising critical-minerals prospect. Geological mapping and surface sampling have expanded the footprint of a high-grade vein system rich in silver, gold, antimony, and base metals, strengthening the case for further exploration. If the project proves commercially viable it will significantly boost the production of antimony in Colombia, where a small export industry for the critical mineral already exists.

The Cerro Matoso mine in the department of Cordoba makes Colombia South America’s second-largest nickel producer after Brazil. The facility was sold at the end of 2025 by global miner South32 to CoreX Holding B.V. in a $100 million deal. The sale was driven by low production grades, weak nickel prices and South32’s strategic shift towards copper and zinc. The commercial exploitation of those minerals will give Colombia’s economy a solid boost at a time of fiscal and economic weakness.

Colombia is an established fossil-fuel powerhouse, ranking as South America’s fifth-largest oil producer and the continent’s largest coal producer. Major critical-mineral discoveries could put Colombia at the centre of Washington’s drive to secure strategic resources, counter China’s dominance and break its grip on vital supply chains. If the exploration projects discussed prove commercially viable, they will strengthen Colombia’s geopolitical leverage while generating the vital revenue needed to ease mounting fiscal and economic pressures.

By Matthew Smith for Oi