Mineral Security Forum discusses rare earth elements recycling projects in Germany, United Kingdom and the United States.
As South Africa braces to host the High-Level Minerals Security Forum on the threshold of the Mining Indaba event coming up on the 4th of February 2025 in Cape Town, a joint statement from previous sessions has been floated.
The recently released official joint statement from the High-Level Minerals Security Partnership Forum held in Brussels is relaying, among other discussions the proposed development of Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap’s rare earth elements recycling project in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The joint statement was released by the Governments of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the European Commission following the conclusion of the Minerals Security Partnership Forum’s Principals’ Meeting in Brussels.
On December 12 in Brussels, the European Commission, during its Raw Materials Week, hosted a meeting of the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) Principals that focused on specific projects as part of the Forum’s Project Group and a workshop on local value addition as part of the Forum’s Policy Dialogue Group.
These meetings were co-chaired and hosted by Kim Jin-dong, Director General for Bilateral Economic Affairs of ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jose Fernandez, the United States Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, and Kerstin Jorna, Director General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs at the European Commission.
The Principals meeting, led by the Republic of Korea and the United States, convened government officials and private sector investors and focused on advancing and accelerating Minerals Security Partnership projects on rare earth elements, as well as identifying new responsible mining, processing, and recycling projects for critical minerals in MSP Forum member jurisdictions.
At the ROK-led MSP Project Deep Dive meeting, participants discussed the challenges to developing specific MSP projects, including and the newly added Arafura Rare Earths’ Nolans Project in Australia, and identified means to advance these projects.
Additionally, the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) provided a briefing on its REEs recycling technology and ongoing projects.
At the MSP Forum’s Project Group meeting, participants took note of the recent presentations from the governments and private sector of MSP Forum members Argentina and Greenland and appreciated the exchange on specific critical mineral projects and investment opportunities in their countries.
MSP Forum members will continue to make individual country presentations on specific projects to MSP Partners and the MSP Finance Network over the next several weeks and months in partnership with the Minerals Investment Network for Vital Energy Security and Transition (MINVEST).
The workshop on local value addition, led by the European Commission, will be the first of a series of events that will take place as part of the Policy Dialogue component of the MSP Forum.
The workshop consisted of three sessions on various topics, including investment challenges for investors in critical mineral value chains, government policies focused on local value addition, and examples of how to mobilize investments for local value addition.