[Image above] Members of the Minerals Security Partnership pose for a picture during a meeting in March 2024 at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada annual convention. Credit: Under Secretary Jose W. Fernandez, X

 

In June 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration released a first-of-its-kind supply chain assessment that found the U.S. relies heavily on foreign sources and adversarial nations for critical minerals and materials. This reliance “erodes the resilience of U.S. critical supply chains and industries more broadly,” the report stated, and then it recommended several ways to establish diversified, sustainable material sources.

One recommended approach was to work with allies and partners to decrease vulnerabilities in global supply chains. Within a year, the U.S. had enacted this suggestion by announcing the establishment of the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) in June 2022.

MSP is a multinational partnership initiative that aims to ensure critical minerals are “produced, processed, and recycled in a manner that supports the ability of countries to realize the full economic development benefit of their geological endowments,” according to a media note announcing the initiative.

Originally, 10 countries and the European Union (represented by the European Commission) were involved in the partnership: Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Following the announcement, several Indian news sites, such as here and here, reported there were growing concerns in India over being left out of the new partnership. But one year later, in June 2023, those concerns were put to rest when the White House released a joint statement that India had joined the partnership. Additionally, Italy (July 2023), Norway (2023), and Estonia (March 2024) have joined the partnership as well.

Learn more about MSP and the geopolitical factors affecting critical mineral supply chains in the video below, which was published in February 2023.

YouTube video

Credit: Mining the World, YouTube

In March 2024, the MSP partners met at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada annual convention. At the meeting, they announced the creation of the Minerals Security Partnership Forum, which provides a platform for the MSP partners to discuss and advance supply chain projects and policies with other countries around the world.

During that first MSP Forum gathering in March, the MSP partners discussed critical mineral supply chains with several countries from the Western Hemisphere, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Jamaica, Mexico, and Peru. They also confirmed support for several ongoing supply chain projects, which include 16 projects on upstream mining and mineral extraction, seven on midstream processing, and seven on recycling and recovery. These projects span six sites in the Americas, five sites in Europe, 13 sites in Africa, and three sites in the Asia-Pacific region.

In September 2024, the MSP partners met again in New York City on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week and Climate Week NYC. In addition to welcoming new members to the MSP Forum and discussing project updates, the MSP partners announced the establishment of the Minerals Security Partnership Finance Network, which provides a platform through which the finance institutions and export credit agencies of the MSP partners can connect.

The next MSP Forum event will take place on the margins of Raw Materials Week in Brussels, Belgium, in December 2024. Stay tuned for updates from this meeting and other events on the MSP website.

Author

Lisa McDonald

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