“A tale of rapacious colonialism, Cold War spy games, dazzling technical innovation, big business rivalry, big power geopolitics . . . Niarchos has produced an unflinching, landmark work on the nature of extractive capitalism.” —Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times best-selling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing Epic, shocking, and deeply reported, The Elements of Power tells the story of the war for the global supply of battery metals—essential for the decarbonization of our economies—and the terrible, bloody human cost of this badly misunderstood industry Congo is rich. Swaths of the war-torn African country lack basic infrastructure, and, after many decades of colonial occupation, its people are officially among the poorest in the world. But hidden beneath the soil are vast quantities of cobalt, lithium, copper, tin, tantalum, tungsten, and other treasures. Recently, this veritable periodic table of resources has become extremely valuable because these metals are essential for the global “energy transition”—the plan for wealthy nations to wean themselves off fossil fuels by shifting to sustainable forms of energy, such as solar and wind. The race to electrify the world’s economy has begun, and China has a considerable head start. From Indonesia to South America to Central Africa, Beijing has invested in mines and infrastructure for decades. But the U.S. has begun fighting back with massive investments of its own, as well as sanctions and disruptive tariffs. In this rush for green energy, the world has become utterly reliant on resources unearthed far away and willfully blind to the terrible political, environmental, and social consequences of their extraction. If the Democratic Republic of the Congo possesses such riches, why are its children routinely descending deep into treacherous mines to dig with the most rudimentary of tools, or in some cases their bare hands? Why are Indonesia’s seas and skies being polluted in a rush for battery metals? Why is the Western Sahara, a source for phosphates, still being treated like a colony? Who must pay the price for progress? With unparalleled, original reporting, Nicolas Niarchos reveals how the scramble to control these metals and their production is overturning the world order, just as the global race to drill for oil shaped the twentieth century. Exploring the advent of the lithium-ion battery and tracing the supply chain for its production, Niarchos tells the story both of the people driving these tectonic changes and those whose lives are being upended. He reveals the true, devastating consequences of our best intentions and helps us prepare for an uncertain future. If you have ever used a smartphone or driven an electric vehicle, you are implicated. “In another era, when oil was the undisputed lubricant of global capitalism, the economic historian Daniel Yergin charted the intersection of business and geopolitics in his 1992 Pulitzer-winning classic The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power . In 2026, Nicolas Niarchos, a journalist specializing in energy and mining, attempts something similar for the age of batteries. Mostly he succeeds. The Elements of Power cuts like a fast-paced action film from battery labs in California, Tokyo, and the backstreets of Shenzhen . . . to mines in Africa and elsewhere where a combination of powerful companies, hucksters and mostly downtrodden miners scrabble for the minerals needed to power the energy transition.” — David Pilling, Financial Times “ The Elements of Power portrays an energy transition more akin to an amoral free-for-all. The bodies that could—at least in theory—coordinate a just global response to climate change are now being hollowed out and discarded . . . In Niarchos’s coverage, everything comes down to power—and those with the least of it are the ones digging up the elements . . . it is jam-packed with deep reporting on the battery supply chain. This work came at real personal risk: in July 2022, the Congolese government detained Niarchos and his colleague Jeef Kazadi Kamwanga, and kicked Niarchos out of the country soon after . . . The Elements of Power provides an important informational base for analyzing the energy transition . . . Niarchos goes to impressive lengths.” — LA Review of Books “In The Elements of Power , journalist Nicolas Niarchos refuses to let the realities of the critical-mineral supply chain be overlooked. He weaves together many seemingly disparate threads, from the DRC’s colonial history to how the mineral-extraction industry has grown in several nations to battery development in leading laboratories around the world. He lays out clearly the emergence of resource nationalism and superpower competition to secure dependable supplies. Rather than a dull account of business deals, Niarchos shares a vivid story of how the greed of a handful of high-ranking individuals has hurt millions of people.” — Nature “Nicolas Niarchos’s The Elements o