Dr. Jewellord Nem Singh, led a workshop at University o
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Critical minerals (CRMs) are central to economic development, national security, andstrategic competition. Securing supply chain resilience has become a top policy priorityworldwide. For the United States, CRMs are vital in maintaining its military and defenceedge as well as advanced manufacturing industries.
For the UK and the European Union, where domestic mining is limited, stable access to CRMs from third countries will determine their future role in global climate, industrial, and technological leadership. Their transition to digital economies, for instance, depends on reliable access to minerals and the ability to participate in emerging manufacturing supply chains. For China, they serve as indispensable inputs for downstream industries and have been integral to its industrial transformation. For many developing economies holding key reserves, CRMs are crucial both as export commodities and as entry points into global value chains.
The rising mineral demand has been framed as a renewed opportunity for industrialisation and development. CRMs are thus now a cornerstone of economic security and strategic power for both producers and consumers. Yet their expansion is generating two major sources of tension—between countries andwithin countries.
This pillar explores how mining can support industrialisation and structural transformation in mineral-producing countries. We examine:
• How to build linkages between mining and broader productive sectors such as manufacturing, services and green industries.
• Ways to acquire technological know-how, strengthen domestic capabilities and move up the value chain.
• Industrial policy tools suited to today’s critical minerals boom, including local-content measures, midstream processing incentives and innovation policies.
• Strategies to mitigate inequality and distribute the gains from mineral wealth more fairly across regions and social groups. Through collaborative work with governments, development finance institutions, firms and communities, the Lab co-designs, tests and refines practical policy instruments that can turn mineral wealth into durable productive capacities.
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Within this landscape, “Global China” has become a central force in critical minerals and manufacturing supply chains. China and the developing world hold significant reserves, while Chinese firms lead in refining, separation and processing. This pillar focuses on the geopolitics and political economy of international cooperation in the CRM sector. We analyse:
• The proliferation of standards-setting efforts, minerals partnerships and bilateral agreements • How Global China is reshaping supply chains and re-writing trade, finance and investment relations with the Global South
• How producer countries use cartels, export measures and price coordination to strengthen their bargaining power
• The potential for new cooperation frameworks including BRICS and other developing-country initiatives
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Conflicts around mining are becoming more frequent, organised and politically salient. Existing governance frameworks often fail to protect people and nature, generate broad-based value or include affected communities in decision-making. This pillar is about rebuilding territorial legitimacy around mining. We work to:
• Understand why conflicts arise and how they relate to inequality, exclusion and environmental harm • Identify institutional gaps and failures that allow unsustainable practices
• Co-design participatory practices and institutional innovations including FPIC processes, benefit-sharing mechanisms
• Test regulatory tools that link access to finance to social and environmental performance
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Dr. Jewellord Nem Singh, led a workshop at University o
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Dr Yingfeng Ji was invited to present on China’s Rare E
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Aclose-door workshop on the Development of China’s Rar
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Dr. Anabel Marin gave a key note speech at 15th Interna
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Nem Singh (Jojo) is a Principal Research Fellow in Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex, UK, and Lead Convenor of the Critical Minerals Policy Lab. He serves as Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded GRIP-ARM project on green industrial policy and rare metals. His expertise spans global political economy, resource nationalism, and industrial policy in developing countries.
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Arnie Cordero Trinidad is a Research Fellow on the ERC-funded GRIP-ARM project at the University of Sussex and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and specialises in development sociology, migration, social class, and disaster risk reduction.
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Research Fellow & ERC GRIP-ARM Postdoc, University of Sussex PhD/MPhil in Development Studies (Cambridge). Her research covers green industrial policy, China's overseas supply chains, and critical minerals political economy, with fieldwork in Central Asia and China.
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Arnie Cordero Trinidad is a Research Fellow at the University of Sussex and an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He holds a PhD in Sociology from Trinity College Dublin. His work on development, migration, class, and disaster risk reduction has been published in European Societies, Sociology, and the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
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Joanna Morley is a Fellow of the Critical Minerals Policy Lab and holds a PhD in Latin American Studies from the University of Liverpool (ESRC-funded). Her research focuses on the political economy of energy transitions, large-scale infrastructure projects, and contested natural resource governance in extractive industries.
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