The Critical Minerals Association (CMA) welcomes the UK Government's recognition of the importance of critical minerals in achieving net-zero in the newly published Net Zero Strategy 2021. “The UK Government’s statement of commitment to support the industry is a huge step in the right direction. The industry is finally gaining the recognition it deserves as fundamental to achieving UK’s Net-Zero ambitions. We look forward to working with the UK Government to ensure the UK is regionally competitive and not only promotes but also attracts responsible mining and investment.” – Jeff Townsend, Founder, CMA
"A few years ago Critical Minerals were not featured in UK Government's publications (e.g. the 2017 Industrial Strategy). For a UK Critical Minerals Strategy to be announced, and for the UK Government to propose steps forward in line with recommendations put forward by our Industry members, is a huge achievement" - Kirsty Benham, Founder, CMA
The CMA welcomes UK Government’s statement of commitment toward creating an enabling environment for the industry to flourish and meet our nation’s critical minerals needs. “We will support the engagement of the UK’s mining sector in new and existing markets, facilitating investment and collaboration in extraction and processing opportunities.” (p.237)
The UK Government has also committed to "Publish a UK Critical Minerals strategy, setting out our approach to securing technology-critical minerals and metals."(p.229) The CMA is pleased to see recommendations put forward in the ESG paper, ‘A Blueprint for Responsible Sourcing of Critical Minerals’, echoed by the Net Zero Strategy. “ESG-orientated critical minerals extraction will be the pillar of the energy transition. It is fantastic to see the Government recognise the industry’s voice and structure the UK Critical Minerals Strategy around key recommendations put forward in the Blueprint.” – Olimpia Pilch, Business Development Associate UK Critical Minerals Strategy 2022 will focus on:
Ensuring the UK has a reliable supply of critical minerals and metals;
Establishing an enabling environment for growing the sector in the UK;
Showing leadership through working bilaterally and multilaterally to support work on international standards to extend and strengthen the circular economy in technology-critical minerals;
Ensuring our work to build critical mineral supply chain resilience supports our international development priorities;
Using our R&D resource to build a better understanding of markets and prices to help mitigate the impact of supply shocks and demand spikes, and to enable better foresight and early intervention; and,
Work with UK industry (including SMEs) to consider how private and public sectors can better share risks to promote investment and drive innovation at all levels.
We would like to thank all our members involved in creation of our ESG paper including: Satarla, SRK Consulting, Minviro, Roskill, Cornish Lithium, Cornwall Resources, Tungsten West, Dalradian, Tirupati Graphite, Circulor and our external contributors, Source Certain International, Digbee and, NatureMetrics.
Read our ESG Blueprint in full to find out more about more about what is needed to develop responsible supply chains of critical minerals for the UK’s Green Industrial Revolution
Press Release written by Olimpia Pilch, Business Development Associate