Disagreements between governments and investors over resources are at a ten-year high, law firm DLA Piper said, driven by resource nationalism and growing competition between the US and China for critical minerals.

This reflects the scramble for minerals that will power everything from chips for the AI boom, to electric vehicles, to the valuable oil and gas revenues critical to State coffers, particularly in emerging economies. 

The 32 disputes lodged so far in 2025 with the World Bank arbitration body, over everything from oil and gas to gold, uranium and lithium, had already exceeded last year's total, DLA Piper said. 

"As their value has become more apparent, states have felt the need to exert greater control over any deposits of critical minerals within their borders," said Gabriela Alvarez-Avila, a DLA Piper partner and co-leader of international arbitration.

Of the cases, 17 related to oil and gas assets, DLA Piper's analysis of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) database showed.

The largest number of disputes, 11 in total, have been in Latin America, while Colombia, with four of those cases, is the single largest.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro last year designated several mining areas as temporary natural reserves, banned fracking and threatened to block coal exports to Israel, creating tension with some investors. 

Mexico, which nationalised lithium in 2022, had two cases, as did Ecuador and Panama.  

DLA Piper did not break down the specific disputes. 

Africa, which has large reserves of critical minerals, has ten disputes, which involved Niger, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Morocco and Senegal.

The DRC is home to a range of critical minerals including cobalt, copper, lithium and manganese - a target for many countries and investors.

The United States in particular has said it is open to exploring critical minerals partnerships in the DRC after a Congolese senator contacted US officials to pitch a minerals-for-security deal.

Australia-based AVZ Minerals said in July a new deal between Kinshasa and US-backed KoBold Metals to develop part of a lithium project breached an international arbitration order. 

Most of the remainder of the disputes identified by DLA Piper's research were in Europe and Central Asia.