Mineral Kingdoms

Lurking behind virtually every meaningful event in modern human history is an invisible variable that is rarely noticed. It fuels innovation, confers power, and crushes armies. It is, both literally and figuratively, the building block of empires. And it is hiding, just out of sight, right beneath our feet. The underlying history of humanity for the past five millennia is written in the mines. What happens on Earth is driven by what lies beneath it.