Why Care About Geology in 2025?

Rocks are the building blocks of our world and connect us to our planet at a fundamental level (Photo source: unsplash.com)

What does the food on your plate, the phone in your pocket and the house you live in have in common?

Whether you're a business leader, policy maker, investor, or someone simply trying to understand our changing world, we are all wholly dependent on the rocks beneath our feet. Yet we live in an age where we've forgotten this deep-rooted connection to the Earth.

The world is going through an energy transition and global leaders have finally started to take notice of the need for energy independence. Yet, they have not fully grasped the need for raw materials in achieving this goal. OK, critical minerals are a hot topic - something I am very glad to see - however, there are various targets that have been set to achieve energy independence, net zero emissions and related ‘green economy’ principles and that’s where the analysis, planning and policy stops.

These policies, such as the EU rules of origin targets and the new UK Industrial Strategy and the previous UK Government’s Critical Mineral Strategy, lack underlying incentives to source those raw materials and the frameworks for encouraging investment into the minerals sector remains neglected. Providing high-resolution, pre-competitive data is a standard in successful mining jurisdictions to better understand the subsurface potential. In many nations talking about critical minerals - and especially in the UK - this is simply lacking.

It is easy to focus on critical minerals as they’re the hot topic, but this allows individuals to feel like they are off the hook. Unfortunately, we all consume these raw materials - critical ones like lithium, or basic things like sand - on a day to day basis. They’re essential in producing the food we eat, over 60 elements are in your smartphone, and they are literally the building blocks of our home. (Now, the small minority of you that live in a traditional log cabin somewhere don’t get a pass either, that wood grew from soil formed by weathered rocks - you’re still connected to geology.)

We are fundamentally connected to the Earth which is why I believe everyone should have a basic understanding of geology because geology isn’t just rocks (that would be petrology) - it is everything about our planet and how we interact with it.

The Hidden Story of Our Dependence on the Earth

We often associate our dependence on the Earth with our environment and the immediate surface, more specifically the green things that we like to look at. It is a natural part of the human condition, our eyes are far more sensitive to different shades of green than they are to any other colour. However we ignore our connection to the subsurface and what it contains.

Further to this, news agencies like to pick up on the worst aspects of our activities that destroy that natural environment leading to the portrayal of rapacious mining companies injuring the very planet upon which we rely for our existence. The truth is, the burden of those activities lies with us as the consumer, more specifically those individuals on Level 4 (high income countries like the USA, UK, and most of Western Europe) of the World Bank income level classification, and to a lesser but significant extent, those on Level 3 (upper-middle income such as China, Brazil, Mexico). If you’re unsure where you sit, if you’re reading this, you are almost certainly on Level 3 or 4.

We need to change the narrative whereby corporations are to blame for environmental damage. Yes, they may be responsible but to what end are their activities serving? Shareholder dividends is one, but ultimately, the business exists because there is demand for the product. That demand starts and ends with the consumer.

When a smartphone is purchased - in fact almost any modern technology - by about 2 billion people every couple of years, this creates demand for metals, and niche metals at that. Due to the consumer demand for a small lightweight super computer in their pockets so they can infinitely doom-scroll their way through TikTok, mining companies go out to source the metals required to make such a device. These metals are often found in small quantities and relate to other ‘payable’ metals. This means that to mine one thing, it needs to be economic to mine the other. Indium is reliant on zinc, for example, and if you want a good quality touchscreen, you need indium.

It happens, too, when it comes to putting solar panels on your roof. People do this for various reasons but increasingly it is because the cost of energy bills are extortionate - not because environmental altruism. These solar panels require a lot of niche metals. The same goes for wind turbines - although this is perhaps a governmental concern from an installation point of view. Ultimately, the move to renewable energy sources will drive even more demand for raw materials that will come from one place - the Earth.

Fertilisers used in growing our food are also sourced from rocks. Whether is phosphate-based fertilisers or nitrate-based fertilisers. Phosphates are most simply dug up, processed and spread on fields. Whereas nitrate fertiliser uses nitrogen and hydrogen from the air. However, the reaction is catalysed by platinum. Without platinum, the reaction wouldn’t be viable - and platinum is sourced from rocks in just a few countries in the world (South Africa being dominant).

The supply chains can be long, the processes complicated, but ultimately, all products that are consumed, including energy, are linked to the Earth and in parting with our cash we are creating an insatiable demand for raw materials and a mining industry that needs to satisfy that demand.

Critical Challenges in 2025

Three Geological Realities Reshaping Our World

There are a many ways our dependence on Earth resources is shaping the world as we know it, but there are three that are coming into stark contrast in 2025.

1 The Critical Minerals Crunch

Critical minerals are in sharp focus with governments due to supply chain issues over the last five years and now volatile tariffs being imposed by the USA. Much needs to be done for Western nations to catch up and it remains to be seen if it is even possible under traditional capitalist principles with China’s monopoly across extraction and refinement of these metals resulting in easy market manipulation and leverage over the global economy and our climate future.

2 Energy Infrastructure and Net Zero

If we want to meet net-zero targets in the Paris Agreement understanding our local geology will be fundamental. For example, resources such as deep geothermal energy, knowing about the subsurface is essential to creating viable projects. There are lots of properties that need to be better understood, but from a project economics point of view, one of the biggest issues is capital expenditure for drilling - knowing more about the rocks beneath will help plan and optimise this cost. There are so many other opportunities but this is already a long post … I’ll expand in a future post!

3 Resource Security and Geopolitics

The recent manoeuvres by President Trump are the most well-known example of metals entering geopolitics such as the touted Greenland purchase, and the peculiar overtures for a Ukrainian ‘peace-for-metals’ deal that seems to have gone very quiet. These are clumsy attempts to secure metals abroad - and all countries will need allies in this space to satisfy their needs - but there are opportunities for most countries domestically, too.

Not least in the UK, opportunities in all the home nations present an opportunity to supply at least a proportion of the domestic need for these metals from primary sources. And there are now interesting projects underway to maximise UK recycling capabilities and ‘domesticate’ our imported products as a secondary supply stream.

Why geology matters to everyone

Understanding our link to the Earth matters for everyone if we are to take responsibility for the state of our planet and recalibrate our society and our actions as individuals to fix the problem.

Business leaders need to shift their thinking from shareholder dividends to stakeholder benefits. It is particularly true for mining operations that continue to put community benefit schemes in the ‘necessary to get the project off the ground’ category rather than seeing the operation as a transient project that will leave a lasting benefit once the mine closes.

Policymakers need to enable an expansion of the extractive sector within a responsible framework that encourages investment. Finding funding for pre-competitive datasets such as high-resolution geophysics and geochemical surveys is the bare minimum.

Investors need to engage with the place in which a mining project exists and look at the long-term opportunities of providing community benefit. I have always been told about compound interest when it comes to investing but rarely do we see compounding benefits with mining towns left high and dry once the industry moves on and the money leaves town.

Understanding geology isn't about becoming an expert - it's about becoming an informed participant in the systems that shape our world. When you know that your smartphone contains 60+ elements from dozens of countries, you can ask better questions about supply chain resilience and ethical sourcing. When you understand that geothermal energy depends on specific geological conditions, you can engage more meaningfully in energy policy discussions.

So why care about geology in 2025? Because understanding the ground beneath our feet might just determine the future above it.