Joint international partnership on critical minerals resilience
The EU, US and Japan agree to cooperate on supply chains, while a Texas spinout is tackling recovery of these minerals.
During a Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting, the three countries sought a mutually beneficial partnership to jointly enhance their economic and national security.
The agreement includes a commitment within the next 30 days for a Memorandum of Understanding between the US and EU, aimed at boosting critical minerals supply chain security.
The Memorandum will identify areas of cooperation to simulate demand and diversify supply by supporting projects in mining, refining, processing and recycling.
It will discuss measures to prevent supply chain disruptions, promote research and innovation efforts, and facilitate the exchange of information on stockpiling.
The US and Japan also signed a Framework for Securing the Supply of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths through Mining and Processing that covers the same areas.
All three intend to build on existing international cooperation and initiatives, develop action plans, and explore a plurilateral initiative on critical minerals trade with like-minded partners.
This could involve exploring the development of coordinated trade policies and mechanisms, such as border-adjusted price floors, standards-based markets, price gap subsidies, or offtake-agreements.
They will continue to engage and further explore possibilities for critical minerals resilience in relevant international forums, such as the G7 and Minerals Security Partnership.
Additionally, the US has released an action plan with Mexico to outline preferential trade measures for critical minerals, such as border-adjusted price floors on imports, seeking to secure mutual supply chain resilience.
The actions include discussing feasibility and development of coordinated trade policies and mechanisms; consulting on how to embody such mechanisms into a plurilateral trade agreement; and identifying and prioritising financing and policy support for mining, processing and manufacturing projects of mutual interest.
Supra Elemental Recovery, a spinout from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, is supporting the US’s critical minerals goals by developing a platform for selectively recovering high-purity critical minerals from waste streams.
It is initially targeting semiconductor supply chains – in particular, essential elements such as gallium and scandium, for which the US is currently 100% dependent on imports.
Supra’s non-toxic approach pumps dissolved industrial waste through proprietary, reusable, sponge-like cartridges that can sequentially capture and release critical minerals.
Early trial results reportedly indicate up to 100 times greater selectivity and speed compared to incumbent methods, allowing higher purity and lower costs. The technology is also being validated for other elements, including cobalt, lithium and lanthanides.
Co-Founder and CEO of Supra, Katie Ullmann Durham, says the company can “profitably recover” billions of dollars worth of minerals that would otherwise be stuck in domestic waste streams, such as industrial by-products, mine tailings and electronic waste.
