The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the Republic of Korea and Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the European Union following the conclusion of the Minerals Security Partnership’s Principals’ Meeting in New York.
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The MSP Partners highlighted the announcement on September 23 of the creation of the MSP Finance Network, during a meeting of MSP Partners and their respective development finance institutions (DFIs) and export credit agencies (ECAs). This new network will further strengthen cooperation and promote information exchange and co-financing among participating institutions to advance diverse, secure, and sustainable supply chains for critical minerals. The private sector entities who also attended the MSP Finance meeting on September 23 collectively represent over $171 billion in funds raised, $34 trillion in assets under management, and $26 trillion in market capitalization. This impressive financial backing along with the billions of dollars available from the MSP public finance agencies underscore the immense potential for impact and collaboration.
The MSP Partners also welcomed the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, the Philippines, Serbia, Türkiye, and Zambia as new members of the MSP Forum in that group’s first in-person meeting, also on September 26. MSP Forum members used this event to discuss opportunities, priorities, and challenges in responsible mining, processing, and recycling of critical minerals, with participation from ministers and high-level officials from MSP Forum members.
The MSP chair appreciated that several achievements have been realized since the previous Principals’ Meeting in March, thanks to unwavering support from MSP Partners. There were 23 MSP projects announced in March, and that number has since increased to 32 projects. Currently, various critical minerals projects are under way around the world, including upstream mining and mineral extraction, processing and recycling and recovery.
During the meeting, MSP partners identified 7 projects as having reached key milestones, emphasizing that accelerating MSP projects is crucial for ensuring a stable global supply chain of critical minerals, which is essential for the development of advanced industries and the clean energy transition.
- Across the 32 MSP projects:
- 19 projects focus on upstream mining and mineral extraction, 15 on midstream processing, and 3 on recycling and recovery.
- 10 projects include rare earth elements, 6 graphite, 6 cobalt, 3 nickel, 2 copper, 2 lithium, 1 high-purity aluminum, 2 gallium, 2 germanium, and 1 manganese. The Partners note that some projects produce more than one mineral type.
- 13 project sites are located in Africa, 8 project sites in the Americas, 6 project sites in the Asia-Pacific region, and 5 project sites in Europe.
- The 7 projects which have reached key milestones since the last meeting in March are:
- KoBold Metals’ Mingomba Copper Exploration Project (Zambia): At the 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, KoBold and ZCCM-IH announced an initial $150 million investment in the Mingomba copper deposit located in Chililabombwe, Zambia into a world-class mine by using artificial intelligence (AI) to direct expedited mineral exploration in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province. In June 2024, KoBold Metals and ZCCM-IH announced an increased investment of more than $2 billion to develop the Mingomba project, which will play a key role to help Zambia increase its annual copper production to 3 million tons and help power the electrification of the global economy during the energy transition.
- Gécamines-Umicore Germanium Project (DRC): In May of this year a new deal was finalized between STL, a subsidiary of La Générale des Carrières et des Mines (Gécamines) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Belgium’s Umicore, that advances cooperation on germanium offtake and processing. This milestone agreement, significantly increases the global supply of germanium, which is used in semiconductors, optical cables, solar cells, sensors for defense-related technologies, and more. The project also contributes to local economic development and skills training, and the development of recycling and recovery capacity in the DRC.
- Mahenge Graphite Project (Tanzania): POSCO International, a major Korean trading firm, signed an agreement to purchase shares in Black Rock Mining Ltd. for $40 million to secure a supply of graphite from a Tanzanian mine. This investment brings POSCO Group’s total ownership in Black Rock Mining to 19.9%, and will pave the way for the development of the Mahenge graphite mine in Tanzania. POSCO Group expects to receive 30,000 tons of graphite annually from the deal, starting in 2026, and up to 60,000 tons by 2028.
- Electra Ontario Cobalt Refinery (Canada): Canadian-based Electra Battery Materials received a U.S. $20 million award in August 2024 from the Defense Production Act Investments (DPAI) office of the U.S. Department of Defense. This award will support the construction and commissioning of North America’s first cobalt sulfate refinery, capable of producing battery grade materials for lithium-ion batteries, at Electra’s facility in Temiskaming Shores, Ontario, Canada. Once fully commissioned, the facility can produce 6,500 tons of cobalt per year, with cobalt feed sourced from Glencore and Eurasian Resources Group mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition to cobalt refining, Electra plans to produce other battery materials at the same refinery complex. In addition, in June 2024, Electra received a U.S. $3.6 (C$5) million award from Natural Resources Canada to advance the next phase of this battery materials recycling project.
- ESS Inc. (United States): In June 2024, EXIM’s Board of Directors authorized $50 million in financing to ESS Inc. for its Wilsonville, Oregon facility, for the construction of several new long-duration iron flow battery storage production lines. The long-duration batteries are purpose-built for bulk storage by solar and wind renewable power providers. EXIM’s financing package consists of a final commitment to finance two production lines in the immediate term, plus a preliminary commitment to finance several additional production lines as ESS Inc. scales up its production capacity to meet customer demand, enabling the tripling of annual production capacity at their facility, to increase exports to Europe, Australia, and Africa. This authorization represents a contribution to the MSP and the global energy transition.
- Australian Strategic Materials (ASM – Australia): In March 2024, EXIM issued a non-binding Letter of Interest to ASM to provide potential debt financing of up to $600 million for the construction of the company’s rare earths and critical minerals Dubbo Project in New South Wales, Australia.
- Queensland Pacific Metals (QPM – Australia): In July 2024, the Australian Government awarded QPM an AUD8 million (USD5.4 million) grant to bolster domestic nickel and cobalt production at QPM’s Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub in Queensland, Australia. The Queensland State Government also announced up to AUD8 million (USD5.4 million) of funding to prepare the Project for investment readiness. Previously, QPM had received approximately AUD1.4 billion (USD900 million) in conditional debt commitments from financing agencies in Australia, Canada, and Germany.
Noting that concrete results are the MSP’s top priority, the Chair proposed to hold deep dive meetings for MSP projects as case studies in the near future.
MSP partners highlighted the MSP Principles for Responsible Critical Mineral Supply Chains and agreed that the implementation of high ESG and labor principles and practices is one of the primary goals pursued by the MSP. MSP projects are required to review and assess ESG performance regularly throughout their entire lifetimes.
The MSP is an action-oriented consultative body seeking the diversification of responsible critical minerals supply chains, beyond a multilateral dialogue. MSP partners promote policy engagement to elevate ESG and labor standards and expand investment opportunities in their mining industries.
MSP partners will continue to work with MSP Forum members to maximize the opportunities for synergies and to facilitate early achievements from MSP projects.
The MSP aims to continue seeking stabilization and diversification of global supply chains of critical minerals, to facilitate the development of advanced industries and the transition to clean energy.
