Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

UK Vision 2035 Critical Minerals Strategy: legal and policy analysis of domestic production, planning and permitting, recycling capacity, international partnerships and ethical, net zero-aligned supply chains

Published on: 09 January 2026

Published by a LexisNexis Environment expert

Legal News

Article summary

What is critical about critical minerals?

At the end of November 2025, the UK government unveiled its strategy on critical minerals, ‘Vision 2035: Critical Minerals Strategy’. The Strategy sets out a long-term plan to secure access to minerals seen as essential for future economic development. The latest document follows an earlier version issued in 2022 and refreshed in 2023. This level of sustained strategic activity is a clear sign of the changing geopolitics of access to critical minerals and a growing political awareness of the UK’s vulnerability in securing them. There is no single, standard definition of a critical mineral (CM), and the UK list of CMs differs from those of the EU and other jurisdictions. Whether a mineral is deemed critical may depend on both a country’s existing resource base and its future ambitions. Criticality will also be shaped by projected global demand, and by the scope for substituting a mineral when supplies are tight. In the annexes to the Strategy, the UK list includes: cobalt; lithium; graphite; platinum; and rare earth elements (REEs). There is also a watchlist of minerals under review, including: nickel; iridium; and phosphates...

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