The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the European Commission following the conclusion of the Minerals Security Partnership Forum's Principals' Meeting in Brussels.
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On December 12 in Brussels, the European Commission hosted during its Raw Materials Week, a meeting of the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) Principals that focused on specific projects as part of the Forum's Project Group and a workshop on local value addition as part of the Forum's Policy Dialogue Group. These meetings were co-chaired and hosted by Kim Jin-dong, Director General for Bilateral Economic Affairs of ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jose W. Fernandez, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, and Kerstin Jorna, Director General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs at the European Commission.
The Principals meeting, led by the Republic of Korea and the United States, convened government officials and private sector investors and focused on advancing and accelerating MSP projects on rare earth elements, as well as identifying new responsible mining, processing, and recycling projects for critical minerals in MSP Forum member jurisdictions.
At the ROK-led MSP Project Deep Dive meeting, participants discussed the challenges to developing specific MSP projects, including HyProMag's rare earth elements recycling project in the UK, Germany and the US, and the newly added Arafura Rare Earths' Nolans Project in Australia, and identified means to advance these projects. Additionally, the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) provided a briefing on its REEs recycling technology and ongoing projects.
At the MSP Forum's Project Group meeting, participants took note of the recent presentations from the governments and private sector of MSP Forum members Argentina and Greenland and appreciated the exchange on specific critical mineral projects and investment opportunities in their countries. MSP Forum members will continue to make individual country presentations on specific projects to MSP Partners and the MSP Finance Network over the next several weeks and months in partnership with the Minerals Investment Network for Vital Energy Security and Transition (MINVEST).
The workshop on local value addition, led by the European Commission, will be the first of a series of events that will take place as part of the Policy Dialogue component of the MSP Forum. The workshop consisted of three sessions on various topics, including investment challenges for investors in critical mineral value chains, government policies focused on local value addition, and examples of how to mobilize investments for local value addition.
The MSP looks forward to hosting MSP Forum members for the next MSP Forum event on the margins of Mining Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa on 4 February 2025.
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