Ending the ‘Extract-and-Export’ Era: How FORGE and Pax Silica Transform Central Asian Mining

The 2026 Critical Minerals Ministerial marks a seismic shift for Central Asia, repositioning the region from a geopolitical "Great Game" buffer to the essential pivot of a new U.S.-led industrial order. By leveraging world-class rare earth reserves and aligning with strategic frameworks like the FORGE initiative, nations such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are moving to secure their mineral sovereignty against predatory market distortions and coercive dependencies. This analysis explores how the American "Real Things" doctrine facilitates a renaissance of influence in the steppes, offering Central Asian states a path toward vertical value integration, stable price floors, and economic autonomy through modernized connectivity via the Middle Corridor.