Mint examines whether such an initiative can succeed, and why it is important. What is the Pax Silica initiative? The initiative aims to bring together countries across continents to collaborate on diversifying the supply chains of critical minerals such as lithium, rare-earth elements, gallium, germanium, palladium, and indium, among others, which are used in sectors ranging from artificial intelligence infrastructure to automobiles. Launched by the US in December 2025, it will look to collaborate across the entire supply chain: from technology to mining to the processing of critical minerals. Currently, the initiative has nine official signatories: Australia, Greece, Israel, Japan,…