THE NEW ARCHITECTURE OF MATTER: BRICS and De-Dollarization

For eighty years, the US dollar was the invisible grammar of the global economy. Since Bretton Woods, the global financial system has been based on the promise that universal value would be measured in the coffers of the Federal Reserve. This monetary fiction became the foundation of the American empire, granting the United States the privilege of printing debt and converting it into political, military, and diplomatic power. However, the 21st century ushered in a turning point. What seemed immovable is beginning to give way. The BRICS bloc, formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, has just unveiled plans to create a Precious Metals and Minerals Exchange, which will soon become a platform for settling transactions in gold and rare earths. The decision sends an unequivocal message that the axis of economic power is shifting, and the dollar is no longer the center of the world.

For years, Western analysts speculated that BRICS would create a new fiat currency to rival the dollar. However, the bloc realized that its strength lies not only in printing banknotes, but in controlling the resources without which nothing can be produced. This is where the BRICS bloc project gains strategic importance. The BRICS countries hold approximately 72% of the world's reserves of rare earth metals and process 75% of global production. They are also responsible for 70% of cobalt and 50% of nickel. These last two elements are indispensable to the electric battery industry and the energy transition. Mastering this material is, therefore, mastering the century. [1]

These mineral resources have become the hidden lifeblood of contemporary civilization. Nothing functions without them. The cell phone, the hypersonic missile, the wind turbine, the electric car, and the technological engine of our time are all made with minerals. That's why this new precious metals exchange is not a mere financial mechanism. It is a declaration of material sovereignty against the abstract hegemony of Western capital.

Historically, the price of gold and metals has been set by institutions based in London and New York, such as the London Metal Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. These structures were created to protect the interests of the Global North, controlled by banks that secretly decide the value of other people's wealth. After the war in Ukraine, this structure revealed its political nature. Russia's exclusion from the SWIFT system transformed a technical instrument into an arm of American foreign policy. In response, the bloc decided to build its own clearing mechanisms with the help of the Chinese CIPS system, the ruble, rupee, and real clearinghouses, and now this precious metals exchange, which ushers in a new financial order based on tangible assets. This model takes away the West's privilege of unilaterally sanctioning and manipulating the price of raw materials. Power eventually changes hands, silently but irreversibly. [2]

The weakening of the dollar is already an empirical fact. In 2025, the US currency recorded its worst devaluation since the abandonment of the gold standard in 1973. [3] In just six months, it lost more than 10% of its value against major global currencies. Currently, approximately 67% of transactions between BRICS countries already take place outside the dollar system. Between Russia and China, almost 90% of bilateral trade is conducted in their own currencies. What began as resistance has become the norm. [4]

Global dollar reserves in central banks have fallen to 58%. This is the lowest level this percentage has reached in the last twenty-five years. Investors and national treasuries are shifting to physical assets, especially gold, which is regaining its status as the ultimate safe haven. The BRICS bloc currently accumulates more than 12,500 tons of gold, with China and Russia accounting for almost 2,300 tons. Gold is returning as a foundation of confidence, and the dollar, once untouchable, is reduced to just another currency. Even the petrodollar, a pillar of American supremacy since the 1970s, is beginning to fragment. Saudi Arabia is now accepting payments in renminbi, the Chinese currency, for part of its oil exports. [5]

In Africa, this movement is taking on even more significance. The continent, long reduced to a supplier of raw materials, is beginning to position itself as an active player in this new paradigm. The Longonjo project in Angola, valued at $80 million, is expected to supply approximately 5% of the global demand for magnetic metals, essential for the electrical industry and wind turbine production. [6] Nigeria is investing $400 million in a new rare earth metals processing plant, with the mining sector expected to account for 10% of GDP within the next two years. For the first time, Africa's mineral wealth will be channeled through alternative financial systems, beyond the control of Western corporations. [7]

Contemporary Africa thus has the opportunity to overcome inherited colonial systems and enter the new geopolitics of the matter.

But there's a deeper subtext to this process. Whenever the United States felt its dominance threatened, it resorted to force. The 2003 invasion of Iraq, under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, was first and foremost a war for oil. Now, however, the dispute is more complex because without access to rare earth metals, not even the American military machine can function. Hypersonic missiles, radars, aircraft, and control chips depend on chemical elements concentrated in territories controlled by the BRICS.

Niobium, for example, is considered by the United States Geological Survey to be the second most critical mineral for national security, due to its resistance to high temperatures and its role in the construction of advanced weaponry. Brazil produces approximately 98% of the world's niobium, giving the BRICS an absolute strategic advantage. This dependence is structural. China holds a near monopoly on the processing of rare earth metals, refining over 99% of the three essential elements used in the production of heat-resistant magnets. While China produces over two hundred thousand tons of these materials annually, the United States and the European Union together produce no more than ten thousand. This phenomenon is a brutal asymmetry, and it is precisely within this asymmetry that the future is shaped. [8]

In conclusion, BRICS continues to prove itself to be the first coherent attempt to build an alternative financial system to Western liberalism, based on resource sovereignty and transparency of exchange. By replacing the dollar with a new measure of value based on gold and raw materials, the bloc proposes not a utopia, but a historic correction.