What consideration has the Welsh Government given to working with the UK Government to put copper on the UK’s critical minerals list to ensure supplies of copper for Welsh industry?
Building UK supply chain resilience for critical minerals is crucial given the importance of manufacturing to our economy. However, the British Geological Survey’s 2021 report “UK criticality assessment of technology critical minerals and metals” noted that copper is ‘seldom’ classified as a critical mineral as it typically has well established and diversified supply chains and relatively stable and transparent markets. My predecessor wrote to the UK Government last year concerning the previous UK Government’s approach to improving the security and sustainability of international mineral supply chains, and we previously commented on their draft critical minerals strategy.