World mineral & energy resources
World mineral & energy resources · global distribution
12 min read · Updated 2026-05-25
What are World mineral and energy resources?
World mineral and energy resources are distributed very unevenly, which is why resource geography is largely geopolitics. Fossil fuels still supply about 82 per cent of world energy. OPEC, founded in 1960, holds roughly 70 per cent of oil reserves; China accounts for about 60 per cent of rare-earth production and 90 per cent of processing; the Democratic Republic of Congo dominates cobalt.
The story
1859. A retired railway conductor named Edwin Drake sinks a 21-metre hole into a hillside at Titusville, Pennsylvania, hoping to find oil he can sell as lamp-fuel. He hits crude. Within 5 years, Pennsylvania produces half the world's oil. Within 50 years, John D Rockefeller's Standard Oil is the world's first business behemoth. Within 100 years, two World Wars + the Cold War + the Iraq Wars have been fought over who controls the next Drake well.
1973. OPEC turns off the tap. Oil prices quadruple overnight. The world enters the first energy crisis — and discovers that a few barrels of crude can collapse a developed economy in 6 months. Stagflation, recession, fall of post-war Bretton Woods.
2025. The world produces 101 million barrels of oil a day, 8 billion tonnes of coal a year, and is in the middle of the biggest energy transition since the Industrial Revolution — toward solar (cheapest electricity in history), wind, batteries (Li + Co + Ni from a handful of countries), and nuclear. Critical minerals — once a footnote — have become the new geopolitical pivot. Whoever controls lithium triangle (Chile + Bolivia + Argentina), cobalt belt (DRC), and rare-earth processing (China holds 90%) holds the EV century by the throat.
Mineral and energy geography is, in the most literal sense, the geography of power.
Why this matters for UPSC
Syllabus location: GS-I — World Economic Geography (mineral + energy resources, global distribution). GS-III — Energy security, critical minerals. Asked 4-5 times in Prelims over the last decade — country- resource pairings, OPEC, REEs. Mains regular topic (2019 oil geopolitics, 2022 critical minerals). Very high contemporary salience.