Narrative warfare in critical minerals: Information manipulation and governance challenges

• Provides first typology of information manipulation in critical minerals governance. • Maps 15 global cases across supply chains, from rare earths to lithium. • Demonstrates how disinformation, omission and greenwashing shape legitimacy. • Advances governance responses for resilience and accountability. As global demand for critical minerals accelerates, so does the strategic manipulation of information surrounding their governance and supply chains. Owing to their complexity, opacity, and geopolitical significance, critical minerals uniquely lend themselves to information manipulation. This paper explores how disinformation, misinformation, greenwashing, and narrative warfare shape the politics of perception in critical minerals governance. Drawing on 15 empirical vignettes spanning diverse geographies, it develops a typology of narrative manipulation, categorising techniques such as geopolitical disinformation, ESG distortion, criminal obfuscation, and community-level misinformation. The analysis reveals how information asymmetries are not peripheral to the sector but central to how legitimacy, consent, and value are constructed—making the governance of perception as consequential as the governance of material flows . The paper argues that information integrity is an emerging frontier of resource governance, requiring not only technical transparency but also epistemic pluralism and accountability in framing, consultation, and oversight. It concludes by proposing a conceptual shift toward governance models that treat narrative control as a site of political power and regulatory concern.