Ten key partner countries have established the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) initiative to bolster critical mineral supply chains across the globe amid concerns of a predicted shortfall.
The goal of the MSP is to ensure that critical minerals are produced, processed, and recycled in a manner that supports the ability of countries to realise the full economic development benefit of their geological endowments.
MSP partners are: Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Commission.
All are “committed to building robust, responsible critical mineral supply chains to support economic prosperity and climate objectives”.
The MSP will help catalyse investment from governments and the private sector for strategic opportunities across the full value chain that adhere to the highest environmental, social, and governance standards.
Insufficient materials supply
Last month, Bolivia’s government stalled on naming one or more companies to help its state-run company mine lithium until December.
Bolivia has an estimated 21 million tonnes out of the 89 million tonnes that make up the world’s known lithium resources, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, with its largest salt flat resource being the Salar de Uyuni— but has so far failed to produce the battery material at a commercial scale.
In April, the US’ president Joe Biden invoked the country’s Defense Production Act in a bid to secure a reliable and sustainable supply of materials critical to the manufacturing of “large-capacity” lithium-ion batteries.
President Biden has ordered the Defense Production Act of 1950 to be enacted to create a “sustainable and responsible” domestic materials supply chain for the production of automotive, e-mobility, and stationary storage batteries.
In January, concerns were voiced when a proposed mining project, which was to produce 2.3 million tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate over four decades, had its licence revoked by the Serbian government.
Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabić said the decision was made following requests by various green groups to halt the mining firm Rio Tinto’s $2.4 billion Jadar lithium project.
