Welcome to the December issue of Materials World
As this issue went to print in early December, the UK Government announced that a new Critical Minerals Strategy will be released in Spring 2025. The announcement followed the release of the 2024 Criticality Asssesment from the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre, hosted by the British Geological Society.
The report highlighted the UK’s vulnerability to disruption in critical minerals supply, while also increasing the number of materials that appear on the critical list. Notable additions are nickel, iron, germanium, aluminium and chromium.
The government’s announcement to target a resilient supply chain that can deliver the minerals we need for a 'thriving car sector, a world-leading ecosystem and secure renewable energy' is therefore welcome. It represents an opportunity for IOM3 and its members to feed our expertise into this work as part of the Institute’s key policy priorities, including establishing a comprehensive UK Materials Strategy, bolstering the UK’s approach to critical materials and supporting the necessary talent pipeline.
As highlighted in the IOM3 report, The talent gap: critical skills for critical materials, and recent joint letter to the Education Secretary of State, there are significant and growing skills gaps along the critical minerals value chains as well as a decline in relevant education and training provision.
Our article on the reinstatement of the Mining Engineering undergraduate degree and new degree apprenticeship at Camborne School of Mines provide headtorches of light in this regard. Patrick Foster FIMMM, Head of Camborne School of Mines, sees the critical minerals focus as an opportunity for the mining industry to challenge perceptions. He says, 'We now have a once-in-a-generational opportunity to try and make mining attractive to young people. If we can’t do it now, we never will.'
We hope you enjoy this issue and best wishes for the festive period from all of us at IOM3.
Rupal Mehta, Editor
