Krait Critical Minerals Corp. (CSE: KRIT; FSE: U0S)
Advancing U.S. antimony and building a strategic portfolio of American critical-mineral assets through disciplined exploration and acquisition.
As of November 1, 2026, a new report from global investment firm Ninety One indicates that a worldwide competition over energy, metals, and agricultural resources is reshaping commodity markets. Geopolitical conflict, supply shortages, and rising demand are compounding one another, making “access to raw materials” increasingly as important as “capital.”
The report’s core judgment is that the China-led commodity supercycle of the 2000s has given way to a new phase characterized by constrained supply, geopolitical fragmentation, and regional resource security.
The “Revenge of the Old Economy”: Supply Is the Real Story
Paul Gooden, Ninety One’s head of natural resources, summed up the situation as “the revenge of the old economy.” He stressed that this is not another commodity supercycle—demand is solid, but the real story is on the supply side. Over the past decade, producers prioritized cash flow over expansion, and that discipline is now colliding head-on with geopolitical fragmentation and new sources of demand; years of underinvestment and increasingly fragmented supply chains make these pressures difficult to reverse in the short term.
AI and Energy: The Computing Race Is an Energy Race
The expansion of AI and data centers is creating new electricity demand, adding strain to power grids already under pressure. According to the report, proposed U.S. data-center projects correspond to approximately 200 gigawatts of electricity demand—roughly 200 times the power consumption of the city of San Francisco. Gooden put it bluntly: the race to build AI infrastructure is becoming a race to secure energy—without power, even the most advanced data centers are just expensive buildings. With grid capacity constrained, companies are beginning to explore direct power generation, creating new opportunities for natural gas.
On oil, the Middle East conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have left energy supply unsecured when it is needed most. Since the conflict began, global oil inventories have fallen by approximately one billion barrels; the U.S. Gulf Coast three-to-one refining crack has risen to about $45 a barrel (typically around $20), while tanker costs between the Middle East and Asia have climbed from $2–3 a barrel to $30. Gooden warned that even if the conflict ended tomorrow, rebuilding a billion barrels of inventories would create additional demand for years—”the market is underestimating how long it could take to return to normal.”
Metals: Copper’s Divergence and Structural Gold Buying
The race for electricity and infrastructure is likewise reshaping metals markets, but record prices are masking increasingly divergent fundamentals. Copper inventories have risen sharply as material is redirected into the U.S. amid tariff uncertainty, while Chilean production has fallen to its lowest level in six years. Portfolio manager George Cheveley cautioned that copper’s long-term logic (electrification and infrastructure demand) remains strong, but investors should not confuse a strong long-term investment case with the simple market reality of today—at current prices, copper’s short-term risk is rising.
Gold, meanwhile, is benefiting from continued central bank purchases and reserve diversification. Cheveley noted that even with gold at historically elevated prices, central banks are still buying, suggesting this is a structural shift rather than a short-term reaction to geopolitical uncertainty. At the same time, miners’ equity valuations have yet to fully reflect the stronger profitability of the non-yielding metal.
Food Security: Pressures May Converge by 2027
Supply pressures are extending into agriculture. High energy costs, concentrated fertilizer production, extreme weather, and tightening inventories could pose further challenges to global food supplies by 2027. The Middle East is a major supplier of nitrogen fertilizer, while global potash production remains concentrated in a handful of countries. Portfolio manager Dawid Heyl warned that the risk is these pressures arriving together—diesel and fertilizer costs are already squeezing farmers, and a prolonged El Niño would put further pressure on yields.
Outlook: The Next Investment Cycle Defined by “Difficulty of Production”
The report concludes that a fundamental revaluation of energy, metals, and agricultural resources is underway. Gooden’s summary carries a warning: years of underinvestment mean supply cannot respond overnight, and “ability to pay” will become increasingly important; the next investment cycle may be defined as much by “what the world struggles to produce” as by “what the world wants to consume.”
For investors, this means the resource sector’s opportunities and difficulties are two sides of the same coin: supply constraints raise the price center and long-term returns, but also amplify short-term price divergence, policy uncertainty, and cost-shock risks.
