Commercial projects and scaling timelines

China controls 80-90% of critical metal refining, and that’s a big problem for the West’s data center, energy, and defense sectors, our guest Craig Tindale explains.

Subscribe to the Blockspace newsletter!

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Today, Craig Tindale, macro investor and former manufacturing consultant, joins us to talk about the critical mineral shortage and multi-trillion dollar problem facing the US data center, energy, and defense sectors. We dive into his "Critical Mineral Thesis," exploring how China secured 80-90% of the world's critical mineral refining capacity. Craig explains the "midstream matrix," the looming 25,000-tonne silver deficit, and why the US is like a "turtle on its back" after decades of outsourcing. We discuss if sound money can save a system that has lost its atomic backbone.

If you’d like to read Craig Tindale’s work to learn more, you can find his seminal articles here:

-Critical Materials: A Strategic Analysis

-The Hard Bifurcation

Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Notes:

* China controls 80-90% of mineral refining.

* 70% of silver production refined in China.

* 25,000-tonne silver deficit in four years.

* Large transformers have 4-5 year wait times.

* Chinese firms borrow at 2-4% interest.

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:37 Who is Craig?

10:15 Thesis

13:49 Silver problems

17:41 Tin

19:50 Titanium

22:42 Recession game theory

27:32 Sound money standard

33:43 Regulation outlook

40:24 Reshoring industry

45:22 Data center demand

49:39 Energy generation stagnation

54:52 Waking up to reality

1:00:52 Greenland & political games

👉CleanSpark, America's Bitcoin Miner!

CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK) is a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. We own a portfolio of power, land, and data centers across the United States powered by globally competitive energy prices. Sitting at the intersection of Bitcoin, energy, operational excellence and capital stewardship, we optimize our infrastructure to deliver superior returns to our shareholders. Monetizing low-cost, high reliability energy by producing a global emerging critical resource – compute – positions us to prosper in an ever-changing world.

👉 FBOX, Cooling for Bitcoin Mining and the AI Data Center Transformation

FBOX is the global leader in cooling system manufacturing, with the #1 shipment volume of bitcoin mining containers worldwide. Not only powering for the strongest hashrate, their technology also helps mining infrastructure transform into AI data centers. Backed by the largest production scale on earth, global deployment capability, and a full range of cooling solutions, they are shaping the future of compute.

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

Published thrice weekly, "The Blockspace Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday, our news show on Friday, and our Writer's Room talk show on Saturday!