The world uses nearly 2 billion tons of steel a year, and almost a third of it doesn't come from a mine — it comes from “old stuff”: shredded cars, demolished buildings, worn-out appliances. The business that collects, shreds, and sorts this scrap to feed “electric arc furnaces” (EAF) is the quiet backbone of decarbonizing heavy industry, because steel from scrap emits about 75% less carbon than steel from ore, and aluminum from scrap uses up to 95% less energy. This is the story of the “above-ground mine” — a boring business that suddenly became a strategic resource every country is racing to hoard.