Pakistan, Jan. 14 -- In the twenty-first century, the architecture of global power has undergone a fundamental shift, moving beyond the traditional metrics of standing armies and formal alliances toward a command over the foundational materials of the modern economy. From high-end semiconductors to hypersonic missiles, and from grid-scale batteries to orbital satellites, states that secure critical minerals are quietly redrawing the strategic map. If oil dictated the kinetic movements of the twentieth century, it is obscure metals, unearthed from remote terrains, that now determine which nations build, which nations defend, and which nations endure.

It is within this subtle yet highly consequential contest that Pakistan is beginning to e...