Meeting rising metals demand with tech solutions

Global copper demand is expected to double by 2035, reaching approximately 50 million metric tons annually, driven largely by energy transition technologies, electric vehicles and infrastructure development.

But even as mining companies race to keep pace, challenges like declining ore grades, environmental restrictions and rising costs continue to limit production.

Maverick states that its proprietary lixiviant works at ambient temperatures and neutral pH levels, offering a safer, cheaper and more sustainable alternative to traditional acid leaching.

The technology enables the recovery not only of copper, but also valuable by-products such as molybdenum, gold, silver and even rare earths from a variety of unconventional sources — including tailings, smelter slag and coal fly ash.

According to Maverick, its LithX technology has demonstrated a range of benefits that could reshape the economics and the overall environmental footprint for metals processing.

For instance, the technology increases recovery rates at ambient temperatures, significantly reducing energy costs. It also eliminates the need for acid addition, offering a safer and more sustainable alternative to traditional methods.

In addition, Maverick notes that the process mitigates the risk of acid contamination and hazardous reagent exposure, enhancing worker safety — a key concern in traditional mining operations.

“We are pleased to announce our investment in and support of Maverick Metals,” said Nichola Eliovits, managing partner at Olive Tree Capital, in the company’s release. “We believe LithX has the potential to significantly increase the range of viable resources available to help alleviate global supply constraints.”

While copper remains a primary focus, LithX has shown versatility for a range of critical metals, such as high lithium extraction from spodumene and enhanced rare earths and gallium recovery from minerals like allanite and monazite.

Double hit: Tariff shock and OPEC+ supply surge

The catalysts for the broad decline are a one-two punch of a deepening trade conflict between the US and China, and a surprise production surge from OPEC+ nations.

Trump’s tariff announcement — described by JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) as the ‘largest tax hike on Americans since 1968’ — has rattled global markets and sent oil traders into a panic over demand destruction.

Beijing has responded with defiance, promising to fight to the end and calling Washington’s demands “blackmail.’

At the same time, OPEC+ — the alliance of major oil producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia — announced an unexpected increase of 411,000 barrels per day in May output, compressing three months of planned supply expansion into a single move. The boost comes after months of US pressure to increase supply and push down energy prices.

But the timing could not have been worse for American producers. Analysts say the combined impact of slowing global trade and higher supply of the energy fuel has left the American oil industry vulnerable. Prices have dropped below the US$65 threshold needed to sustain profitable drilling activity across much of the US.

According to the latest Dallas Federal Reserve energy survey, even operations in the Permian Basin — the lowest-cost production zone in the country — require crude to trade above US$61 to remain economically viable.

“You’re probably seeing more pauses of initial investment intention than the initial Covid shock. It’s really bamboozling,” Rory Johnston, a veteran oil analyst and publisher of the Commodity Context newsletter, told Heatmap.

“Everything else is really, really starting to grind to a halt, and you’re not seeing anyone jumping over themselves to ‘drill, baby, drill,’ despite the White House’s claims,” Johnston added.

Equity markets have punished energy companies accordingly. Oilfield services giant Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) shed 20 percent in a single week, while Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR) lost 30 percent in just five days.

The oil majors fared slightly better, but still saw significant losses, with ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) down 10 percent, Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) down 15 percent and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) falling 13 percent.

Tariff fallout threatens global energy outlook

There is growing concern among market watchers that if economic activity continues to weaken under the weight of tariffs, further declines in both oil and gas demand are likely.

Crucially, many of the countries most affected by Trump’s tariffs — particularly in Southeast Asia — were previously projected to drive the bulk of oil and energy demand growth over the next decade.

Vietnam, Cambodia and four other Southeast Asian nations were hit with tariffs exceeding 45 percent, prompting concerns that their economies could stall or contract.

“The macro concern is that if these tariffs stay where they are, this is in a global recession, if not a depression-making place,” Johnston elaborated in his conversation with Heatmap. “And given that the highest tariff rates are on Asia in particular, and that’s where all growing oil demand is, it’s not good for oil.”

Meanwhile, US producers are grappling with higher costs for drilling inputs due to tariffs on steel, aluminum and other industrial goods. Johnston explained in a Bluesky post that drillers have reported a 30 percent spike in the cost of tubular steel pipe, a critical material for oil and gas wells, since Trump implemented a 25 percent steel tariff in February.

So far, OPEC+ officials have not signaled any plans to curb output again.

For now, the market remains volatile, and producers are in a state of limbo. Despite early promises of energy dominance and renewed drilling, Trump’s policy choices have left the sector reeling.

“The administration’s chaos is a disaster for the commodity markets. ‘Drill, baby, drill’ is nothing short of a myth and populist rallying cry. Tariff policy is impossible for us to predict and doesn’t have a clear goal,” one executive told the Dallas Fed last month.

Yearly central bank gold purchases since 2019.

Chart via the WGC.

Twenty-nine percent of the WGC’s survey respondents indicated plans to grow their gold reserves, up 5 percent from the previous year. Three percent reported their institution is planning to decrease its gold holdings, which was unchanged from the previous year.

The WGC believes that central bank gold purchases will continue to be a major driver of gold demand in 2025.

1. United States

Gold reserves: 8,133.46 MT

When it comes to the largest gold depository in the world, the American central bank is number one with 8,133.46 MT.

A large percentage of US gold is held in “deep storage” in Denver, Fort Knox and West Point. As the US Treasury explains, deep storage is “that portion of the US Government-owned gold bullion reserve which the Mint secures in sealed vaults that are examined annually by the Treasury Department’s Office of the Inspector General and consists primarily of gold bars.”

The rest of US-owned reserves are held as working stock, which the country’s mint uses as raw material to mint congressionally authorized coins.

2. Germany

Gold reserves: 3,351.53 MT

The Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, currently owns 3,351.53 MT of gold. Like many of the central banks on this list, the German national bank stores over half of its stock in foreign locations in New York, London and France.

The Bundesbank’s foreign gold reserves came into question in 2012, when the German Federal Court of Auditors, the Bundesrechnungshof, was openly critical of the Bundesbank’s gold auditing.

In response, the German bank issued a public statement defending the security of foreign banks. Privately, the Bundesbank then began the arduous process of repatriating its gold stock back to German soil. By 2016, more than 583 MT of gold had been transferred back to Germany.

Nearly half of Germany’s gold holdings are stored in Frankfurt, while more than a third are in New York, an eighth of its holdings are in London, and a miniscule amount are held in in Paris.

The economic upheaval and geopolitical volatility brought about by US President Donald Trump’s tariff wars and adversarial posturing toward Europe led Germany to consider further repatriating its gold, reported The Telegraph in April 2025. About 1,200 metric tons of Germany’s gold holdings are stored in the vaults of the New York Federal Reserve in Manhattan.

3. Italy

Gold reserves: 2,451.84 MT

Banca d’Italia, the national bank of Italy, began amassing its gold in 1893, when three separate financial institutions merged into one. From there, its 78 MT slowly grew into the 2,451.84 MT the country now owns.

Like Germany, Italy stores parts of its reserves offshore. In total, 141.2 MT are located in the UK, 149.3 are in Switzerland and 1,061 are kept in the US Federal Reserve. Italy houses 1,100 MT of gold domestically.

4. France

Gold reserves: 2,437 MT

The Banque de France has 2,437 MT of gold reserves, all of which it keeps on hand. The precious metal is stored in the bank’s secure underground vault, dubbed La Souterraine, which is located 27 meters below street level.

La Souterraine’s gold vaults are one of the four designated gold depositories of the International Monetary Fund.

According to Investopedia, the collapse of the Bretton Woods gold standard system was in part due to former French President Charles de Gaulle, who “called the U.S. bluff and began actually trading dollars in for gold from the Fort Knox reserves.” At the time, US President Richard Nixon “was forced to take the U.S. off the gold standard, ending the dollar’s automatic convertibility into gold.”

5. Russia

Gold reserves: 2,332.74 MT*

The Bank of Russia is the official central bank of the Russian Federation and owns 2,332.74 MT of gold. Like France, Russia’s central bank has opted to store all its physical gold domestically. The Bank of Russia stores two-thirds of its gold reserves in a bank building in Moscow, and the remaining one-third in Saint Petersburg.

The majority of the yellow metal is in the form of large, variable-weight standard gold bars weighing between 10 and 14 kilograms. There are also smaller bars on site weighing as much as 1 kilogram each.

Russia, which is the second largest gold producer by country, has been a steady purchaser of the precious metal since roughly 2007, with sales ramping up significantly between 2015 and 2020. However, Russia’s refineries were banned from selling gold bullion into the London market following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions by the west also include a freeze on about half of Russia’s gold reserves.

In early 2022, Russia tied its currency, the ruble, to the yellow metal. ‘The plan was to shift the currency away from a pegged value and into the gold standard itself so the ruble would become a credible gold substitute at a fixed rate,’ according to Robert Huish, an Associate Professor in International Development Studies at Dalhousie University.

*This figure does not reflect year-end 2024, including the at least 3.1 MT purchased in 2024, per the WGC, which is awaiting further data to update the 2024 total.

6. China

Gold reserves: 2,279.56 MT

The central bank for Mainland China is the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), located in Beijing. According to the WGC, the national financial institute stores 2,279.56 MT of gold, most which has been purchased since 2000. In 2001, the PBoC had 400 MT of gold in reserve, but in just a little more than two decades that total has climbed by 459 percent.

The PBoC issues the Panda gold coin, which was first created in 1982. The Panda coin is now one of the top five bullion coins issued by a central bank. It is among the ranks of the American Eagle, Canadian Maple Leaf, South African Krugerrand and Australian Gold Nugget.

The PBoC was one of the top gold buyers out the world’s central banks for 2024, purchasing another 44 MT of gold during the year. April 2024 marked the 18th consecutive month of gold buying for China’s central bank, which paused its purchases afterward until picking them up again in November.

7. Switzerland

Gold reserves: 1,039.94 MT

Holding the seventh largest central bank gold reserves is the Swiss National Bank. Its 1,039.94 MT of gold are owned by the state of Switzerland, but the central bank manages and maintains the reserve.

After years of opaqueness regarding the country’s golden treasure trove, the Swiss Gold Initiative, or Save our Swiss Gold campaign, was launched in 2011.

The publicity culminated in a national referendum in 2014, asking citizens to vote on three proposals. The first was a mandate for all reserve gold to be held physically in Switzerland. The other two dealt with the central bank’s ability to sell its gold reserves, along with a decree that 20 percent of the Swiss bank’s assets be held in gold.

The referendum was unsuccessful, but did prompt the bank to be more transparent. In a 2013 release, the central bank reported that 70 percent of its gold reserve was held domestically, 20 percent was located at the Bank of England and 10 percent was stored with the Bank of Canada.

8. India

Gold reserves: 876.18 MT

The Reserve Bank of India is another central bank that has fervently acted to increase its holdings in recent years. It began adding to its gold assets in 2017; however, the majority of its purchases have taken place in the past four years.

Strikingly, after India’s central bank purchased 16 MT of gold in 2023, the institution scooped up another 72 MT of the precious metal in 2024.

While more than half of its gold is held overseas in safe custody with the Bank of England and the Bank of International Settlements, about a third of its gold is held domestically. In June 2024, India repatriated 100 MT of gold from the United Kingdom. This was the first time since 1991 that the Reserve Bank of India moved its overseas gold holdings back home.

9. Japan

Gold reserves: 845.97 MT

Public information about the Bank of Japan’s gold reserves is hard to come by. In 2000, the island nation was holding approximately 753 MT of the yellow metal. By 2004, the Bank of Japan’s gold store had grown to 765.2 MT, and remained at that level until March 2021, when the country purchased 80.76 MT of gold.

10. Netherlands

Gold reserves: 612.45 MT

Rounding out this list of the top central bank gold reserves is the Dutch National Bank (DNB), the central bank of the Netherlands. Like Switzerland, the Dutch central bank stores as much as 38 percent of its gold in Canada’s national reserve. Another 31 percent, in the form of 15,000 gold bars, is held in a domestic vault, while the remaining 31 percent is located in New York’s Federal Reserve bank.

In a report, the DNB describes gold as the supreme safe-haven asset. “Central banks such as DNB have therefore traditionally had a lot of gold in stock. After all, gold is the ultimate nest egg: the trust anchor for the financial system,” it reads. “If the entire system collapses, the gold supply provides collateral to start over. Gold gives confidence in the strength of the central bank’s balance sheet. That gives a safe feeling.”

*11. International Monetary Fund

Gold reserves: 2,814.1 MT

The gold reserve held by the International Monetary Fund is the third largest in terms of size. The large gold reserve was amassed primarily during the founding of the international organization in 1944.

In that inaugural year, it was decided that “25 percent of initial quota subscriptions and subsequent quota increases were to be paid in gold.”

Since 1944, the International Monetary Fund has added gold through the repayment of debts owed by member countries. Nations can also exchange gold for another member country’s currency.