Biden Administration Announces Global Critical Minerals Program

On the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York City last week, Biden administration officials and ally countries announced a new plan to finance critical mineral projects. The goal of the project is to counter China’s dominance in producing and selling the raw materials that are needed for a clean energy transition.

“The energy transition is at risk,” Undersecretary of State Jose Fernandez said. “We need more production capacity for critical minerals that need to come online — many of these supply chains for critical minerals are concentrated in one or two countries and also lack resilience.”

The Minerals Security Partnership, which, along with the United States, includes the European Union and 13 other nations, already seen a dozen projects to completion in the past two years and has approximately 30 more in its pipeline. The newly announced partnership is expected to help promote cooperation and co-financing for these endeavors. In the United States, meanwhile, lawmakers have introduced multiple pieces of legislation to bolster the supply chains needed to compete with China on the critical minerals front.

Read more about the Biden administration’s work on critical minerals at this link.