UK Steps Up Critical Minerals Drive to Reduce Reliance on China and Secure Future Growth

Britain is intensifying efforts to secure its supply of critical minerals, unveiling a comprehensive strategy aimed at reducing dependency on China, which maintains firm control over many essential materials. Prime Minister Keir Starmer highlighted the vulnerabilities facing the UK economy and national security as a result of overreliance on a limited number of overseas suppliers.

The government has outlined plans to diversify sources and fortify domestic supply chains for materials such as lithium, tungsten, nickel, and rare earths vital to modern manufacturing, battery technology, electric vehicles, and data centre infrastructure. The move includes the establishment of a fifty million pound fund to boost production at key sites, including tungsten and lithium mines in Cornwall, a region identified as having some of Europe’s largest deposits.

The strategic initiative follows a prolonged standoff between China and the European Union over the supply of computer chips vital to the automotive sector, an episode that underscored the political leverage attached to critical material trade. The UK joins the US and European partners in accelerating efforts to mitigate risks associated with concentrated foreign control of mineral supplies.

The development of Europe’s only lithium hydroxide refinery in Germany, which required five years and one hundred fifty million pounds of investment, serves as an example of the scale of commitment necessary to advance raw material refining in the region. British ambitions include producing at least fifty thousand tonnes of lithium domestically by 2035, positioning the UK to meet a greater share of its industrial and technological demands from homegrown sources.

In addition to expansion at domestic sites, Britain has secured a minerals cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia designed to reinforce supply chains and attract fresh investment into the UK sector. The government aims to ensure that by 2035, no more than sixty percent of any key mineral originates from a single foreign supplier, a benchmark intended to bolster economic resilience and national security.

Rare earth minerals play a crucial role in the production of smartphones, electric vehicles, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence infrastructure. Current estimates put domestic production at six percent of the nation’s critical mineral needs, with the new strategy seeking to increase both extraction and processing capability within the next decade.