Materials, Minerals & Mining for People, Places, Planet

Whether or not a country has an explicit industrial strategy, decisions its government makes can have a massive impact on industry and how firms can adapt to external challenges and shocks. In recognition of this, in October 2024, the UK Government launched its Green Paper Invest 2035: the UK’s modern industrial strategy. This sets out the Government’s vision for a modern industrial strategy – ‘a credible, 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in the high growth sectors that will drive our growth mission’. The industrial strategy will focus on the sectors which Government analysis suggests offer the highest growth opportunity for the economy and business. Eight growth-driving sectors have been identified:

• advanced manufacturing
• clean energy industries
• creative industries
• defence
• digital and technologies
• financial services
• life sciences
• professional and business services

During the course of 2025, we expect greater clarity as to what this future industrial strategy will mean for the UK, especially for the materials, minerals, and mining sectors, which underpin so much of UK industrial capacity.

This plenary session will provide the most recent updates and will bring together some key speakers to share their perspectives across our fields.

Modern society operates a “take-make-use-lose” model of resource use. We extract organic and mineral resources from the planet, turn them into items which we use once or many times and then throw them away, hoping never to see them again. This is often called a ‘linear economy’. A ‘circular economy’ is one where we keep resources in use at as high a value for as long as possible, restoring natural systems and eliminating waste. The expertise of professionals in materials, minerals, and mining is key to making this work.

The UK Government has committed to moving to a zero waste economy, and as part of that it plans to produce a Circular Economy strategy in 2025, signalling a potentially significant change of economic model that will take decades to deliver.

This plenary session will provide the most recent updates and will bring together some key speakers to share their perspectives across our fields.

Fundamental to the success of the UK Government’s industrial ambitions, plans for economic growth and net-zero targets is skills, and a skills system that is fit for the future. Delivery of the strategies discussed in this programme will only be possible if the UK has enough people with the required skills, education and training, both to do the work and ensure it is properly regulated. This means access to relevant learning provision, awareness of the employment opportunities available and pathways into the industry.  

The demand for skills across many areas of materials, minerals and mining is growing and a significant increase in workforces will be required. At the same time, however, there is a decline in the availability of skilled professionals, with insufficient new talent entering these fields.

The concerning and growing skills gaps stretch across our industries from construction, packaging and nuclear, to composites, defence and the foundation industries. These skills gaps pose a significant threat to our sectors, and to the UK economy.

Announced in July 2024, Skills England aims to address the skills needs and bring together the fragmented and confusing skills landscape. It commits to ensuring that skills sit at the heart of joined-up decision making across government and to working closely with the Industrial Strategy Council and the Migration Advisory Committee. Critical links will also include close work with the devolved administrations and the Office for Clean Energy Jobs.

This plenary session will provide the most recent updates and will bring together some key speakers to share their perspectives across our fields.

Alongside the general economic and industrial strategies discussed earlier in the programme, there are two more specific topics to cover.

While materials underpins the UK’s manufacturing base, one of the largest in the world, the materials themselves pose a particular challenge in terms of a real focussed national effort, because their role is so all-pervasive.  Further they link into a multitude of other sector strategies which depend on their continual innovation. Launched in January 2025, the Henry Royce Institute-led national Materials Innovation Strategy sets out a 10 year vision and is designed to ensure that materials is clearly positioned as not only a strategic sector in its own right, but as a critical driver of innovation across a range of important technologies.

Secondly, the world has become alive to the issues surrounding escalating demand for certain key metals and minerals that are essential for the transition to net zero, as well as for a range of other modern technologies in health, electronics, defence and more. Building on previous work, the UK Government has committed to producing a new Critical Minerals Strategy in the first part of 2025. This is expected to target the development of resilient supply chains for critical materials over the next decade and beyond, job creation, economic growth, and business confidence in the UK’s industrial sectors. It will also tie into the broader Government’s industrial strategy vision, which aims to drive growth in the UK’s most important sectors.

This plenary session will provide the most recent updates and will bring together some key speakers to share their perspectives across our fields.