Energy Transition Roundtable: The UK Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy

In July 2022, the UK government published Resilience for the future: The UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy following a lengthy consultation conducted by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Following this publication, the Geological Society hosted a roundtable discussion chaired by Nick Gardiner, Senior Lecturer at the University of St Andrews and Lead for the Society’s Energy Transition Science Theme.

The discussion welcomed four expert geoscientists who formed part of the Critical Minerals Expert Committee to share their experience and thoughts on the motivations behind the strategy, the process of its creation and the outcomes as they relate specifically to the geosciences.

With contributions from:
• Dr Sarah Gordan, CEO and co-founder of Satarla and Responsible Raw Materials
• Professor Richard Herrington, former Head of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum and current researcher in the NERC funded Lithium for Future Technology program
• Dr Karen Hanghøj, Director of the British Geology Survey, with extensive experience in research and innovation in academia and in the mining and metals industry
• Professor Frances Wall, Professor of Applied Mineralogy at the Camborne School of Mines and current lead of the Met 4 Tech Circular Economy Centre