Home · Business · Nov 5 archive
UK MPs Warn of China Dependency on Critical Minerals
· Confirmed
In Short: UK Members of Parliament warn of the country's dangerous dependence on China for critical minerals essential for military, renewable energy, and AI technologies.
UK MPs have issued a stark warning about the country's reliance on China for critical minerals, which are vital for military, renewable energy infrastructure, and artificial intelligence technologies. The parliamentary investigation found that the UK is dangerously dependent on China for these raw materials.
According to the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, the UK government must de-risk the country's critical dependencies to safeguard national and economic security. The committee has called for centralised policy and funding for mines and diversification.
China's dominance in the global mineral production market has raised significant concerns. The country processes over 90 percent of the world’s rare earth elements, a subset of critical minerals, which has led to worries about Beijing using its dominance for geopolitical goals.
Jeff Townsend, founder of the Critical Minerals Association, praised the UK government for taking important steps to strengthen the critical minerals sector. However, Christopher Ecclestone believes the market is approaching a more discriminating phase, where simply owning a project containing a strategically important metal will no longer be enough.
The weaponisation of technology and critical minerals could become a hurdle to shared progress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned at the BRICS Summit 2026 in New Delhi. He called on BRICS countries to ensure inclusive access to technology while pursuing growth that balances development with environmental sustainability.
The critical minerals boom is real, but it is also intensifying geopolitical competition over future markets for green energy products. This strategic importance is increasing alongside the competition.
What this adds
The UK's dependence on China for critical minerals is a growing concern, with MPs calling for more diversified supply chains to ensure national security and economic stability.
What's confirmed
- China processes over 90 percent of the world’s rare earth elements (REE), a subset of critical minerals, raising concerns that it will use its dominance to advance geopolitical goals.
What's still developing
- China has spent the last three decades building a dominant share of global mineral production, and the export controls Beijing has introduced periodically since 2023 have made clear just how dangerous it is for other countries to rely on China for access to materials that are essential components of semiconductors, defense technologies, and automobiles.
- Japan has, too, ever since China blocked exports of critical minerals to the country amid a dispute over the Senkaku Islands (known in China as the Diaoyu Islands) in 2010, which pushed Tokyo to start the long process of disentangling its own supply chains.
- New Delhi: The recently approved CAPEX Support Scheme to Promote Critical Mineral Processing will catalyse about Rs 10,000 crore in investment and support sectors such as electric mobility, battery storage, electronics, defence and speciality steel, an official factsheet said on Thursday.
- The vast majority of these essential minerals are sourced from China– and that’s no accident.
- US and Chinese officials began talks in New York aimed at clearing the way for possible agreements on trade, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and critical minerals ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later on Thursday, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
- A fresh Alaska resource report, a completed European acquisition, and a sector-wide surge are converging on critical minerals stocks at once, but the gains come with going-concern warnings and year-to-date losses that tell a different story beneath the surface.
- While rare earth stocks slide against a rising market, one critical minerals producer is sprinting the opposite direction on the back of a sole-source military contract that most investors are only just discovering.
- European Lithium shareholders just handed Critical Metals full control of a prized Greenland rare earth project, yet the market is punishing the buyer harder than almost anything else in the sector.
- Holders of European Lithium stock will receive new Critical Metals shares, which are expected to begin trading on Nasdaq next month.
- Buying in critical minerals stocks is spreading across the group, lifting an antimony producer, a domestic rare earth magnet builder and a Greenland-focused developer together.
- Critical Metals announced that its acquisition of European Lithium has become legally effective.
- Critical Metals is developing the Tanbreez rare earth project in Greenland and the Wolfsberg lithium deposit in Austria, and both remain pre-revenue.