Securing Technology-Critical Metals for Britain

Title:               Securing Technology-Critical Metals for Britain

Duration:       3.50 mins

Begins

[Birmingham Energy Institute logo]

The Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials and the Critical Elements and Materials Network, also known as CrEAM  have collaborated with Sir John Beddington to consider what policy measures will be key to Securing Technology Metals for Britain and ensuring the United Kingdom's supply of strategic elements and critical materials for a clean future.

All around the world nations are rapidly shifting to green low carbon technologies, transforming whole industries and sectors at a rapid pace. These technologies are reliant on critical materials, a subset of which are technology metals. These technology metals are crucial for their performance and operation. Both  the primary resources and the processing capability for these materials are not uniformly distributed around the globe. However they are of strategic economic importance  to the UK and some are at risk of short supply.  

Securing access to these technology metals will be critical for UK industry. The Coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the fragility of these global supply chains, furthermore our trading relationship with countries around the world is changing. The UK's departure from the EU will mean that it now has to consider its own independent strategy for critical materials and technology metals.

We have been working on policy recommendations that can help the UK harness the enormous economic opportunity that could come from securing technology metals for Britain. But given the rapid pace of change and the global race to gain access to these materials, timely action is of the essence.

There are several ways that materials criticality can be avoided;

  • by reusing and recycling critical materials at the end of their lives
  • developing advanced recycling technologies to extract these materials from complex products
  • by diversifying supplies of critical materials
  • investing in new primary resources and the indigenous processing capacity to refine these materials
  • by investing in science and innovation to develop technologies that substitute critical materials  for those containing more earth abundant elements 
  • by improved regulation around the consumption and use of these materials, with social and  business model interventions to reduce the  quantity of these materials our society uses.  

The ideal scenario is a net zero circular economy that conserves resources, cuts emissions and  increases recycling. All the while creating jobs  growth and prosperity for the United Kingdom.

[TEXT: The Commissioners (images of John, Allan and Paul appear with their names and titles underneath)]

  • Sir John Beddington - Chair 
  • Allan Walton - Professor of Critical Materials and Magnetic Materials, co-director of the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials 
  • Dr Paul Anderson - co-director of the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials 

[TEXT: Name and titles of each commissioner]

  • Andy Aboott, Professor of Physical Chemistry, the University of Leicester 
  • Andrew Bloodworth, Science Director for Minerals and Waste, British Geological Survey 
  • Dave OudeNijeweme, Head of Technology Trends, Advanced Propulsion Centre UK 
  • Emma Schofield, Platinum Group Metals Research Fellow, Johnson Matthey 
  • Frances Wall, Professor of Applied Mineralogy, Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter 
  • Gavin Harper, Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials 
  • Neil Glover, Head of Materials Research, Rolls Royce
  • Rob Chaddock, Strategic Development Manager, European Metal Recycling Limited 
  • Robert Gross, Director, UK Energy Research Centre 
  • Robert Lee, Director, Centre for Legal Education and Research, University of Birmingham 
  • Robin Grimes, Professor of Materials Physics, Imperial College 
  • Rupert Lewis, Chief Science Policy Officer, the Royal Society 
  • Vernon Gibson, Visiting Professor, Imperial College London 

[CrEAM Network logo] [TEXT:is an initative of] [University of Birmingham logo, University of Exeter logo]

[TEXT: funded by] [UKRI logo, UKRI EPSRC logo]

Ends