Chinese stranglehold on rare earths forces UK into secret talks with allies
Britain is grappling to secure supplies of the minerals, used in motors of electric cars and in wind turbines, to power green revolution
2 May 2021 • 6:00am
The subject is expected to be high on the agenda at the G7 meeting in June in Cornwall, which is home to untapped resources of lithium
Credit: Cornish Lithium /Neil Williams
Fears China will “turn off the taps” on Britain’s green revolution has forced ministers to enter secret talks with seven commonwealth countries to mine their rare earths.
Officials from the Department of International Trade and the Foreign Office have had meetings with representatives from Australia, Canada, Malawi and Tanzania in a bid to persuade them to supply rare earths, as well as critical metals such as lithium to the UK.
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For the buyers and category managers out there, especially those of you deep in the weeds of buying and managing commodities, here’s a quick rundown of news and thoughts from particular commodity markets, including GM and its environmental targets, China s massive property market and more.
MetalMiner, a sister site of ours, scours the landscape for what matters. This week:
GM to invest nearly $800 million for Canadian EVs plant
The drive toward electrification continues apace in the automotive sector.
This month, General Motors announced plans to invest nearly $800 million to build “Canada’s first large-scale commercial electric vehicle plant.”
In a rare example of joined up governmental thinking, the announcement by
Pensana Rare Earths that it has submitted a planning application for a $125 million rare earth oxide refining facility. The facility would be near Hull in northeast England and would plug a gap in an ore-to-finished-turbine manufacturing landscape developing rapidly in the U.K.’s northeast.
U.K.’s rare-earths-to-turbine supply chain
In November, Innovate UK, a government agency, awarded funding in November to
Less Common Metals (LCM), a rare earth alloys producer. The funding is aimed at conducting a feasibility study into establishing a fully integrated supply chain for rare earth permanent magnet production in the U.K.