MINERS: critical Minerals for Resilience and sustainability: mapping of complex Critical Minerals' value chains and future policy pathways

MINERS aims to drive a global research agenda and partnership network between the UK and Canada to enhance Critical Minerals (CMs) supply chain resilience and sustainability in the UK and globally. It will do this by: building an evidence base for the integrated assessment of complex CMs supply chains; identifying circularity potential along the value chain and potential for reduction of environmental damage; providing clarity over the complex regulatory, ESG and reporting landscape; examining the role of different stakeholders and institutional frameworks; and defining policy levers to shift away from unsustainable mining and industrial practices, resulting in demonstrable advances in knowledge, long-lasting partnerships across academia, industry and government, and transformative policy pathways. In MINERS we adopt a supply chain modelling approach which combines Material Flow Analysis, Monetary Flow Analysis and environmental life cycle assessment to map current complex flows of Critical Minerals, zooming into current linkages between Canada and the UK, and a Further analysis then shows how these aspects oif supply chains can be influenced by the regulatory and ESG landscape. These elements are then combined into a resilience modelling framework that supports the identification of current bottlenecks and key levers for the transition towards circular and resilient CMs supply chains. This goes beyond current criticality assessments to include elements of network and system structure and integrated sustainability assessment to evaluate the ability of the CMs system to recover after exogenous or endogenous shocks. The findings from the resilience assessment are then factored into the design of actionable policy pathways that align with the vision of sustainable and circular CMs supply chains and consolidate efforts to transition towards sustainable mining. The project builds on the collaboration and technical capabilities of the Canadian LUMIT project led by Steven Young at the University of Waterloo and the UK MINERS research team led by University College London Institute for Sustainable Resources, in partnership with the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre and supported by strong industrial partnerships with stakeholders along the supply chain of CMs including Rio Tinto, Vale, the International Council on Mining and Metals, the Faraday Foundation and, on a consultative basis, the Trade Commissioner for Energy and Mining at the High Commission of Canada to the UK. MINERS aims to build long lasting mutually beneficial networks that help to advance research in circular CMs supply chains and contribute to the development of an evidence base for informing decision-making processes. The main outputs of the project will include detailed open-source material and monetary flow analyses; a resilience assessment framework; a joint UK-Canada database on regulatory and voluntary ESG requirements covering not only extraction but all stages of the life cycle of CMs; and policy guidelines on circular and resilient pathways for the transformation of CMs supply chains.  Two multi-stakeholder workshops will be organised in collaboration with Canadian partners to disseminate the findings from MINERS and promote industry and policy engagement.