Downing Street has launched the UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy, setting 2035 goals to supply 10% of demand from domestic production and 20% via recycling, underpinned by a new fund of up to £50 million. Ministers are also aiming to limit exposure to single-country risk so that no more than 60% of any one mineral comes from one nation by 2035. Today, just 6% of UK needs are met at home, according to the GOV.UK release published on 22 November 2025. Lithium gets special treatment: the plan targets at least 50,000 tonnes produced in the UK by 2035, alongside projections that domestic demand for lithium will rise more than eleven‑fold and copper demand will nearly double by the same date. The government frames the strategy as insurance against global shocks and as an industrial policy to anchor supply chains in the UK.

For manufacturers, the power price line matters. From 2027, the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) is expected to cut electricity costs by up to £40/MWh for more than 7,000 electricity‑intensive firms, with levy exemptions subject to a consultation the government says it will launch shortly. In parallel, relief on network charges for the most energy‑intensive industries is due to rise to 90% from 1 April 2026 under the government’s consultation response on the Network Charging Compensation scheme. A quick sense‑check for finance directors: a ceramics or battery‑materials plant using 100 GWh a year would save roughly £4 million annually at £40/MWh. That headroom can support wage bills, hedging strategies or incremental capex while commodity prices and demand remain choppy.

Where could new supply come from? The government points to Cornwall for lithium-described in official material and same‑day reporting as hosting Europe’s largest deposit-as well as long‑standing tungsten assets in the county. It also highlights Vale’s nickel refinery at Clydach in Swansea, one of Europe’s largest, and the UK’s emerging circular supply for rare earth magnets via projects in the West Midlands and Belfast. On magnets, the University of Birmingham’s HyProMag facility at Tyseley Energy Park is bringing recycled rare earth production back to the UK, while Ionic Technologies in Belfast is developing processes to recover materials from end‑of‑life magnets-both relevant to wind, EVs and defence. The government also notes a UK plant producing rare earth alloys used in high‑performance magnets, a capability that remains scarce across the West.

Public finance is part of the pitch. Alongside the new £50 million programme, the National Wealth Fund committed £31 million in September to Cornish Lithium’s Trelavour and Cross Lanes geothermal projects, and UK Export Finance has widened domestic support to firms in critical‑minerals supply chains. Officials say more than £165 million has already gone into UK critical‑minerals businesses to date. For early‑stage developers, this mix of grant, export credit and potential equity support improves bankability, but projects will still live or die on permitting timelines, community consent and offtake quality. The Environment Agency’s priority‑tracked service is being deployed to compress approvals for innovative extraction and recycling projects-useful, if execution matches ambition.

The government sizes today’s domestic critical‑minerals sector at £1.79 billion GVA with more than 50,000 direct jobs and over 50 projects under way, with visible clusters in the North East (County Durham and Teesside), South West (Devon and Cornwall) and across Wales. For local economies, that is a pipeline of drilling crews, process engineers and maintenance contractors rather than headline‑only jobs. Our read: this isn’t a mining boom overnight, but it formalises a project queue investors can diligence now-especially midstream processing and recycling where UK capabilities are already tangible.

Geopolitically, the case is clear. The government cites China’s grip on rare earths-about 70% of mining and 90% of refining-as a central vulnerability, and sets the UK’s 60% single‑country cap to reduce concentration risk. The strategy lands as allies tighten their own rules; the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act sets 2030 benchmarks of 10% extraction, 40% processing, 25% recycling and a 65% single‑country cap. Put simply, the UK is aligning with peer economies on targets while trying to carve out niches-lithium in Cornwall, nickel refining in Wales, rare‑earth magnet recycling in the Midlands-that shorten supply chains for EVs, grid kit and defence. Same‑day coverage from Reuters and the Guardian underscored the strategic intent and the 2035 targets.

Defence resilience is explicitly in scope. London will explore stockpiling-potentially alongside NATO partners-covering minerals, components such as magnets and battery cells, and recycled feedstock. For OEMs tied into long defence programmes, this signals an additional buyer in the market and a potential floor for certain materials in stress scenarios. The policy also nods to long‑run recycling: hitting 20% of demand from recovered materials by 2035 will require more collection, design‑for‑disassembly and stable pricing for secondary feedstock-an area where UK research outfits already have momentum.

What to watch next: timing. The BICS consultation on eligibility is due “shortly,” the EII network‑charge relief steps up to 90% from 1 April 2026, and BICS power relief starts in 2027-milestones that directly affect project OPEX and investment cases. On the supply side, track permitting decisions in Cornwall and the West Midlands, and any new offtakes supported by UKEF or the National Wealth Fund. For investors and SME suppliers, this is a six‑to‑eighteen‑month window to firm up partnerships and stress‑test contracts for price volatility. If government delivery keeps pace with the rhetoric, 2026–2027 could be when the economics start to look compelling rather than aspirational.