On Wednesday 22nd April the Business and
Trade sub-Committee opens oral evidence in a new
inquiry in its work on UK national economic security, looking
at the role of the critical
minerals essential to developing advanced
technologies from AI to military defence
to renewable energy.
Supply chains involving critical minerals can be vast and
complex, so that a large defence company might
have 6,000 or 7,000 contractors creating
components composed of “sub-assemblies made into
assemblies [with] interchanges across oceans multiple
times". The head company may then only have
direct contact with a small number of these contractors.
This creates incredible complexity for governments
trying to understand the scale of national
demand and need, and where the risks
and chokepoints are.
Across three panels the sub-Committee will seek to
understand the UK's competencies and dependencies in sourcing and
developing these critical resources, and what risks
and opportunities the current position
holds.
- What is the effect of critical mineral supply chains on
the resilience of UK industry?
- With the supply of critical minerals already being weaponised
as a tool of economic coercion, how can the
growing need for these raw materials be balanced
with economic security considerations?
- How will emerging technologies impact UK
industry's raw material needs and the current resilience of UK
supply chains?
- What are the threats to those supply
chains – including the role of China – and
what would be the impact to the UK
of disruption?
- What can the UK learn from other
states' response to the use of export
controls?
Rt Hon , Chair of the Business and Trade
Committee, said: “From AI to defence to clean
energy, the industries of the future depend on materials we do
not fully control and supply chains we do not fully see. That is
a risk Britain can no longer afford to ignore.
“Today, critical minerals are not just commodities; they are
instruments of power. When supply can be squeezed, delayed or
weaponised, the consequence is simple: British industry is
exposed, and our economic security is weakened.
“Our inquiry will ask hard questions about where we are
vulnerable, where we must act, and how we build supply chains
that are stronger, more transparent, and more secure - so the
technologies of the future are built on foundations we can
trust.”
At 345pm on
Wednesday 22nd April
-
, Founder at Critical
Minerals Association
- Dr Gavin Mudd, Director at UK Critical Minerals
Intelligence Centre
- Dr Kathryn Goodenough, International Lead (Regional
Geoscience) at British Geological Survey
At approximately 4:25pm:
- Caspar Rawles, Chief Operating Officer at Benchmark
Mineral Intelligence
- Martin Freer, Chief Executive Officer at The
Faraday Institution
- Pranesh Narayanan, Senior Research Fellow at
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
At approximately 5:05pm:
- James Kynge, Senior Research Fellow
for China and the World at Chatham House
- Tom Baxter, Project Manager at Dialogue Earth
- Dr Kathryn Moore, Associate Professor in
Critical and Green Technology Metals at University of
Exeter
