British firms could be urged to stockpile minerals needed to prepare the country for a potential war with Russia under plans being considered by ministers.
At the G20 summit in South Africa, Sir Keir Starmer unveiled the UK’s new critical minerals strategy, which sets new targets for domestic production of lithium, zinc and other in-demand resources.
The Government fears that global supply chains for the minerals, which are essential for F-35s and other military kit, could be disrupted by hostile states as fears of a major conflict add urgency to the race for the resources.
Chris McDonald, the critical minerals minister, told MPs that “for the sake of national security” the Government is “considering mandating that stockpiles be held by industry”.
He added: “Our trade strategy includes a strengthened approach to trade defence, ensuring that we can safeguard UK businesses from an increasingly volatile international trading environment.”
The Department for Business will work with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and industry to use procurement to ensure stockpiling of critical minerals.
The new targets are designed to lessen the UK’s dependence on critical minerals exports in case supply chains are disrupted.
In particular, the Government wants to avoid China, which dominates global production and processing of critical minerals, blocking exports in case of a trade dispute or military clash.
The targets include 10 per cent of all critical minerals used in the UK being produced domestically, while a further 20 per cent from recycled sources by 2035. They are used for smartphones and electric vehicles as well as drones, F-35 fighter jets and other military hardware.
Critical minerals minister Chris McDonald (right) watches a froth flotation experiment on a lead-zinc ore whilst on a visit to the Camborne School of Mines in CornwallIn an interview with The i Paper, McDonald said it was essential that Britain increased its domestic supplies for both economic and military reasons.
During a visit to Cornwall, he said: “The Prime Minister announced the biggest increase in defence spending since the war, and that warfare readiness is important.
“I think it’s all of our views that the increase in defence spending is very much about deterrence.
“You increase defence spending to ensure that you don’t have wars, and critical minerals, they are crucial to the smartphone and every bit of technology that goes with it, but obviously essential for defence as well.
“And that’s why there is a very strong connection between our industrial strategy, our critical minerals strategy and our defence industrial strategy as well.”
While the Government has not yet decided whether to mandate companies to stockpile, it is one option being considered under the critical minerals strategy.
The strategy says: “As the new strategy outlines and in line with the Defence Industrial Strategy sector plan, MoD is committed to building resilience in critical mineral supplies for UK defence and to using its procurement levers to promote resilient defence supply chains, which could include stockpiling.”
McDonald told The i Paper: “When it comes to this stockpiling issue, that’s clearly with supply chain disruptions in mind. And there is a big security element to that as well.
“You can’t really separate those elements of importance for the UK’s industrial base, you know, and everything else that we do, and the defence side as well. Then they’re mutually supportive.”
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This also feeds into Rachel Reeves’s strategy of secure economics, or “securonomics”, McDonald said, “where we achieve economic prosperity, but also we’re secure at home as well.
“And critical minerals is an area that sits right to the crux of that”.
In her Budget on Wednesday, the Chancellor hailed a “critical minerals cluster” based in Cumbria, which will benefit from £28.6m from the National Wealth Fund invested in Cornish Metals Inc, to help finance the reopening of the South Crofty tin mine and create more than 300 local jobs.
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