This paper defines Geopolitical Mining: a system in which minerals cease to be generic commodities and instead become instruments of state power. The leverage sits midstream (conversion, separation, QA/QC, and standards) not in ore alone. We contrast two reproducible governance logics: Engineering-centric systems compress latency from plan to plant via integrated delivery and concessional finance; juridical-procedural systems maximize ex-ante legitimacy through layered review and enforceable rights. Each logic creates distinctive strengths and failure modes across permitting, midstream build-out, and recycling. We propose a hybrid playbook that preserves voice and remedy while restoring clock certainty: parallel reviews with endpoints, bundled infrastructure decisions, FOAK lanes with enhanced monitoring, and blended finance gated by on-spec/utilization KPIs. Sector lenses (lithium, copper, rare earths) illustrate how “tempo + chemistry + legitimacy” determine who captures the marginal processed tonne. Appendices provide a permitting-clock template and a board checklist to translate policy into delivery and delivery into durable legitimacy.