British Geological Society finds UK areas with critical raw material potential
Eight key areas with prospective critical raw materials were identified.
The British Geological Society (BGS) has found areas across the UK with critical raw material potential for the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre.
It is an early step in the UK Government's critical minerals strategy, which aims to strengthen the UK's resilience to disruption in those material supply chains by boosting domestic capacity.
Eight areas that were found to be 'particularly worthy' of more research are:
- an area around Loch Maree near Gairloch, Scotland
- parts of the central Highlands and Aberdeenshire, Scotland
- areas in mid-County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
- parts of Cumbria, England
- parts of the North Pennine orefield, England
- north-west Wales
- Pembrokeshire, Wales
- south-west England
By using a minerals systems approach the team were able to identify particular geological processes to form critical raw materials (CRM) deposits and map these criteria against the UK's datasets - such as maps of the geology, soil and sediment geochemistry, and mineral occurences.
The UK has 18 metals and minerals on its CRM list, with another six materials classed as having elevated criticality. These are almost exclusively obtained from mining and refining operations in other countries, although tungsten has been mined in the UK in recent years.
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