Critical minerals group launches funding arm

Washington, Sep 23 India and 14 member countries and entities of the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) on Monday launched the body’s Finance Network for the creation and development of supply chains of critical minerals needed for clean energy technologies.

The member countries said in a joint statement that “the scope and scale of meeting the rapidly increasing global demand for critical minerals to achieve the clean energy transition is beyond the purview of any single institution”. The funding of these goals will be required for the public and private sectors to “work together to deploy capital into new and existing markets in this sector”.

The launch was announced on the margins of the UN General Assembly meetings in New York.

The MSP’s members are India, the United States, Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the European Union (represented by the European Commission).

The group focuses on the mining, extraction, and secondary recovery, to processing and refining, and ultimately to recycling of minerals and metals supply chains most pertinent to clean energy technologies. These minerals include lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite, rare earth elements, and copper.

“Creation of the MSP Finance Network reflects a desire to strengthen information sharing, coordination, and collaboration among the network participants,” partners said in the joint statement. “This will drive sustainable investment in global critical mineral supply chains, including by mobilising private sector capital, in production, extraction, processing, recycling, and recovery projects.”

The MSP was founded in June 2022 and India joined it a year later in June 2023, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the White House. With 14 partner countries and the European Union, the group represents over 50 per cent of global GDP.

“The participants also affirmed their commitment to advancing critical mineral projects that are sustainable and adhere to high environmental, social, governance, and labor principles and promote local value creation, with a clear and measurable positive development on local economies and communities,” they said in the joint statement. “These standards are essential to ensuring that local communities see benefits from the important role critical minerals are playing in the global economy for years to come.”

Source: IANS