Prime Minister Keir Starmer has unveiled a new critical minerals and rare earths strategy aimed at strengthening the UK’s resilience against China, which currently dominates global supplies of essential materials, including magnets used in products ranging from car doors to refrigerators.
“For too long, Britain has been dependent on a handful of overseas suppliers, leaving our economy and national security exposed to global shocks,” the Prime Minister said.
The initiative includes a £50 million fund to support production at tungsten and lithium mines in Cornwall. Cornwall holds Europe’s largest lithium deposits, and the EU identified the region’s tungsten mine for potential financial assistance earlier this year.
This strategy comes in the wake of a six-week standoff between China and the EU over the supply of chips vital to the automotive industry, highlighting Beijing’s willingness to leverage trade in critical materials for political purposes.
Both the UK and the US are now working to reduce their reliance on China. However, producing rare earths and critical minerals requires significant time and investment, often involving hundreds of millions of pounds.
Although lithium resources exist across Europe, the material must be refined into lithium hydroxide — a crystal-like component essential for generating charge in electric vehicle batteries. Europe’s only lithium hydroxide refinery, located in Germany, took five years to construct and required £150 million in investment, underscoring the scale of financial commitment needed.
Last week, EU Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné acknowledged that the bloc lags behind the United States, which he said has “a business department that buys stocks of critical materials before everyone else. They often buy them from under our noses,” he remarked.
Earlier this year, the UK signed a minerals cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia to strengthen supply chains, open opportunities for British companies, and attract new investment into the UK. Rare-earth minerals are essential for smartphones, electric vehicles, and increasingly for datacentres powering artificial intelligence.
According to an official statement, the UK’s new strategy aims to ensure that by 2035 no more than 60% of any single critical mineral is sourced from one partner country.
Starmer called critical minerals “the backbone of modern life and our national security,” adding that increasing domestic production and recycling would help protect the economy and contribute to efforts to ease living costs.
Currently, the UK produces only 6% of its critical mineral requirements domestically. Under the new plan, the government seeks to expand extraction and processing within the country, with particular emphasis on lithium, nickel, tungsten, and rare earths. The strategy includes a target to produce at least 50,000 tonnes of lithium in the UK by 2035.
