The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Critical Minerals held an event to mark the release of the Critical Mineral Association’s second Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) paper 'Breaking Down Barriers for Responsible Sourcing of Critical Minerals' on 18th July 2022 in UK Parliament. The event was hosted by Cherilyn Mackrory MP, Truro and Falmouth, Chair of the APPG for Critical Minerals, and featured speakers from the Critical Mineral Association and its members.
The CMA's 2nd ESG paper follows the success of its 2021 publication 'A Blueprint for Responsible Sourcing of Critical Minerals' which is referenced in the UK Government's Critical Minerals Strategy and influenced the UK Government's Net Zero Strategy.
It was an honour to have Secretary of State for International Trade, Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP attend the event and give praise to both the ESG paper and the APPG for the event. Minister Trevelyan spoke impressively about the importance of critical minerals and the important work of the Department for International Trade is undertaking around responsible supply chains of critical minerals, alongside other departments such as BEIS.
The APPG for Critical Minerals aims to highlight the UK’s need for a secure, sustainable supply of critical minerals to deliver the nation’s Green Industrial Revolution. The evening aimed to promote and outline the newly launched ESG paper in an environment of collaboration between industry and government. This event was hugely successful, with over 50 attendees despite London’s high temperatures and fed the need for dialogue in the Critical Minerals industry as highlighted by the initial goals of the APPG.
The evening reception opened with a welcome note from Kirsty Benham, Co-Founder of the
Critical Minerals Association. Kirsty took the opportunity to outline both the purpose and structure of the paper, which aims to build on the CMA’s 2021 ESG recommendations and give opportunity for the UK to be a leader in the responsible sourcing of critical minerals. This includes workshops on: ‘Access to Capital’; ‘ESG Standards – Alignment and Verification’; ‘The Talent Pipeline for the Energy Transition’ and ‘UK Domestic Enabling Environment: Planning and Permitting’.
Following this, Julian Kettle, Senior Vice President and Vice-Chair Metals and Mining at Wood Mackenzie gave an outlook to the current critical mineral’s situation in comparison to other nations involved in the field. He delved into where he believes priority lies in conjunction to the recommendations within the ESG paper using his knowledge of over 30 years of experience of analysis of metals and mining.
CMA's ESG working group chair, Aldo Pennini of Satarla, with 25 years of experience as a public affairs professional, explained the blueprint overview to guests giving a flavour of the recommendations and knowledge needed to succeed in goals in the critical minerals field.
The scheduled speakers closed with the Olimpia Pilch of the Critical Minerals Association giving an overview of the ESG paper. Olimpia outlined examples and highlights of the workshops within the document. Olimpia gave examples such as: “the need for decarbonisation”, “gaining international alignment on ESG standards” and made a call for improving the “teaching and accessibility of critical mineral mining and the field earlier in education to develop people for roles in this in the future”.
Cherilyn Mackrory MP closed this event with the thank you for the effort and embrace of government and industry, and the recognition for the need for fast development within the critical minerals industry.
Other attendees from both government and industry, whom we were delighted to host included: Rio Tinto, SRK Consulting, Minviro, Fasken, Anglo Pacific Group, EV Metals Group, and many more.
We hope those who attended enjoyed the event and found the ESG paper useful and we're looking forward to organising future APPG Critical Minerals events and creating platforms for Industry, Academia, and Government to come together to discuss critical minerals.
Read the ESG paper 'Breaking Down Barriers for Responsible Sourcing of Critical Minerals' here: https://www.criticalmineral.org/esgpaper
This event was made possible by sponsors SRK Consulting, Satarla, Fasken, Cornish Lithium, Pensana, and the CMA is incredibly grateful for their contribution toward this event.
Article written by Becca Kirk, PhD Student at Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter