By Dominic Vergine

Last week, the UK Government launched its plan to address the ongoing challenge posed by rare earth minerals.

The strategy outlines an ambition for the UK to produce 10% of mineral needs domestically and achieve 20% of that through recycling, by 2035. This initiative, backed by £50 million in funding, aims to protect the UK from supply disruptions caused by geopolitical tensions or global shocks, such as natural disasters.

The strategy highlights that mineral supply security has become an issue of national resilience, especially given that China currently dominates global critical mineral production, controlling 70% of rare earth mining and 90% of refining.

While the strategy is timely, I believe we must ensure we don't fixate solely on the volume coming out of the ground. True mineral sovereignty will only be achieved by fundamentally altering what we put into our green economy products in the first place.

Rare earth minerals are essential components of high-performance permanent magnets. These magnets are the........

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