Industry Notes / Global mining: the metal map / Chapter 8 of 12 · Thesis cards
Sulfuric acid: a cross-metal single point
Sometimes scarcity is the reagent, not the metal list
Commodity-leading move
Gap sketches near ~5.1 Mt.
Western critical-mineral lists often omit reagents.
Uranium: Cigar Lake acid outage
The world’s highest-grade uranium mine idled ~12 days on mill acid shortage.
An AI line can stall on one bottle of acid.
Copper and nickel hit too
Chile/DRC SX-EW and Indonesia HPAL are sulfur-hungry.
One strait + one export curb spans multiple AI-linked metals.
Hormuz disturbs ~half of seaborne sulfur; China curbs acid exports. Sulfur can lead all commodities YTD and choke SX-EW copper and uranium mills together.
Source：调研正文结论十；硫磺现货与 Cameco Cigar Lake 断酸停产报道
Research notes, not investment advice.