thought leadership
Funding the future: Securing the uk's critical minerals supply
A comprehensive, pragmatic fiscal strategy that supports the UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy can reposition the UK as an attractive destination for critical minerals financing and midstream projects. Alternate finance options such as flow-through shares, direct investment, industrymatched loans and grants, tax incentives, and underwriting of offtake agreements can accelerate domestic critical mineral production and onshoring. Find out more in our finance paper.
Contact Olimpia Pilch at olimpia@cmialliance.com for more information.
download the paper below
midstream processing and refining: unlocking security of supply
Midstream processes are often complex and are feed specific. Specifications for midstream products are demanding and it can take time
to develop a working solution. Midstream plants can be brought into production more quickly than mines, but this requires skills and expertise.
‘Unlocking Security of Supply’ delves into the opportunities that lie ahead for the UK to secure a greater portion of its critical minerals needs. To regain some security of supply, the UK should cultivate its midstream sector to ensure it is not vulnerable to sudden supply chain disturbances.
March 2023
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A Talent Pipeline for critical minerals
The UK cannot deliver the energy transition without significant extraction of critical raw materials – and the UK cannot responsibly produce these raw materials without qualified professionals and scientists, including geoscientists, engineers, and metallurgists. There has been a dramatic decline in the number of young people entering the mineral extraction and processing industry, and in the places available for them to study. The UK needs to incorporate critical minerals, geoscience, mineral processing, and engineering (including mining, geotechnical, civil, electrical, mechanical, and processing) into sustainability education initiatives and strategies.
April 2022
UK Planning & Permitting for Critical Minerals
Prolonged and inefficient planning and permitting processes present risks for both developers and investors. Many jurisdictions overseas have mining agencies that help to support companies and stakeholders through these processes and facilitate inter-agency alignment. Better resourced and more efficient planning and permitting processes for mineral extraction could facilitate growth of the critical minerals extraction industry in the UK.
By supporting the timely implementation of planning and permitting in UK mineral extraction we can help the current system to perform better, speed up the development of responsible critical mineral extraction in the UK, and ensure that these are developed and operated in line with ESG standards comparable to best international industry practice.
June 2022
Mineral rights - England, scotland, wales
Unlocking great britain's potential
Great Britain (GB) has the geological potential, mining history, universities, research bases, financial institutions, and mining services in place for critical minerals extraction. The nation is well placed to support a vibrant exploration and mining industry, but does it have one?
The GB mineral rights situation is highly complex as ownership of mineral rights can be severed from surface rights to any parcel of land, and it cannot, therefore, be assumed that the (surface) land owner will own the minerals beneath that land. Over centuries of conveyancing, many mineral rights have been separated from surface rights. Whilst the system works for some operators, the vast majority struggle to navigate a complex process of identifying mineral rights owners from ancient deeds, without any degree of legal certainty.
Read our paper to understand the key issues and our recommendations to UK, Scotland, Wales Governments.
July 2022
