“We need to develop and strengthen our own supply chain to protect our national security into the future,” said Mr Kwarteng in a statement, adding that the critical mineral strategy lays out the plan to bring high value manufacturing back to the UK.

“Our support for Pensana’s new facility in Yorkshire shows we are already putting the strategy’s aims into action to diversify our supply chains away from dominant market players,” added Mr Kwarteng.

The UK is not alone in this endeavour. At a time of renewed economic nationalism and pandemic-related supply disruption, securing timely and cost-effective raw materials and components has become a serious challenge for governments and companies alike. In many cases, this means domestic industries and jobs are vulnerable to market shocks and geopolitical events.

Rising tensions with China, which after decades of targeted policy and investment has become a dominant force in everything from rare earths to battery minerals, has made it paramount for countries the world over to reduce overreliance and protect strategic national assets.

Western governments including the US, EU and Canada have all set out to ameliorate the situation by outlining bold strategies and support to boost domestic supplies of critical technologies and materials. By 2040, global demand for the minerals used in EV batteries – including lithium, graphite, cobalt and nickel – is forecast to increase by between 6 and 14 times under stated policies, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

While businesses and trade groups welcome the UK government’s long-term ambitions, many complain its strategy lacks detail and offers too little, too late. "We haven't seen enough being done to build resilience in UK supply chains," says Verity Davidge, the director of policy at MakeUK, an association of UK manufacturers. 

Others are asking broader questions about whether it makes business sense to build these supply chains in the UK, amid long-term industrial decline and the impact of its decision to leave the European Union.

While Pensana’s plans to process Neodymium-Praseodymium (NdPr) oxides in its Saltend facility are welcomed as strategically important, analysts question the viability of these plans. 

“Total independence from China in the rare earth industry is difficult to achieve if you are looking to produce at scale,” says Max Reid, a senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie’s battery and raw materials service. 

Other large scale non-Chinese processing facilities operated by Australia’s Lynas and under construction by MP Materials in California had Chinese involvement through either expertise or equipment purchasing.

“It is not impossible to develop Saltend without Chinese involvement, though it certainly isn’t the easy route to take,” says Mr Reid. “Pensana’s plans to undertake all construction and commissioning by 2024 are somewhat ambitious and would not be surprised if there are delays during the process”.

Mr Hudson, the engineering consultant working on the site works for Pensana, told fDi in August 2022 that the company is already getting close to closing the procurement process for some of the longer lead items needed for the facility: “We’re on schedule and we hope to be in production in 2024,” he said.

Aside from the specifics of Pensana's plans to develop a facility independent from China, competition within the rare earths sector continues to be intense. According to cyber security firm Mandiant, the Chinese government has been linked to an online disinformation campaign aimed at undermining the plans of Western companies developing rare earth mineral deposits.

In an extensive policy paper published in July 2022, the UK government outlined its approach to improve resilience, mitigate risks and collaborate internationally on critical mineral supply chains. A total of 18 minerals – such as cobalt, lithium and silicon – were identified as having “high criticality” for the UK economy. 

The government’s plan is to boost domestic production, develop its skills base, enhance reuse and recycling and support research and development in critical minerals and mining. 

The BEIS spokesperson says that where the UK has pockets of mineral wealth it will be important to develop them “in a way that works for communities and the environment”. 

“However, it is not possible, or even desirable, to onshore all aspects of critical mineral supply chains,” they added.

Other efforts to bolster the UK’s capabilities include the setting up of an expert committee to provide independent advice to the government as well as a dedicated centre to collect and analyse information on critical minerals.

Kirsty Benham, the co-founder of the Critical Minerals Association (CMA), a platform for industry and government discussion, says that the strategy has brought a lot more attention to critical minerals, but the “devil will be in the detail”.

“One of the biggest hurdles is going to be delivering this at pace,” she says, noting that it took two and half years for the strategy to be published after the formation of the CMA in March 2020. 

Others complain that the current strategy is light on detail and does not outline a clear route to implementation.

“It’s well-intentioned but flawed by not recognising the sheer lack of labour in the UK market and the required level of investment that would need to be provided by the government,” says Steve Morely, the president of the Confederation of British Metalforming, which represents about 200 UK manufacturers.

Christopher Gleadle, the CEO of the Paddy Ashdown Forum, a think tank, is supportive of the government’s ambitions, but thinks they are taking a “fragmented and disconnected” approach.

“This type of policy should have been done a dozen years ago, whilst we were part of the EU,” he says, noting that Brexit has already done a great deal of damage to the UK’s international reputation and trust with other nations. “We’re trying to catch up now,” he adds.

In the following video, Mr Gleadle elaborates on his thoughts about some of the planned mineral extraction projects in the UK:

A crucial element to the strategy is for the UK to work more closely with resource-rich countries such as Australia, Canada and Chile. In June 2022, the UK was among a group of allied nations to join the Minerals Security Partnership, a US proposed initiative to boost investment into critical mineral supply chains.

Jack Richardson, a climate programme manager at the Conservative Environment Network, notes that while the UK will always be a buyer of these raw materials on markets, it is important to develop these relationships and domestic capabilities.

“Industrial policy is back,” he says. “The government clearly cares about bringing industries back and might pay a bit of a premium to have those jobs and economic growth in our old industrial heartland.”

Several major green projects, including Britishvolt’s planned lithium-ion battery gigafactory in Northumberland, also align with the government’s levelling up agenda. It aims to promote investment and job creation in more deprived areas of the country, which have seen their industries decline over many decades.

Despite these efforts, fDi Markets data indicates that the UK has attracted far less greenfield foreign investment in the battery supply chain than its European peers.

Businesses welcome the government's attempts to bring back manufacturing and supply chains to the UK. But there remains much to be done, according to Verity Davidge of MakeUK.

“Our members have been vocal on the need for more government support on supply chain resilience and reshoring. If manufacturers are going to actually move production back to the UK, there needs to be more support, not just an intention to do so," she says.

Back in Saltend Chemicals Park, the poster site of the government’s resilience strategy, sits an undeveloped plot of land battered by the Yorkshire wind. The long-term aim of producing the materials crucial to the magnets in the turbines across Hornsea 2, the UK’s largest offshore wind farm located just off the coast, is admirable. But the ultimate dream of the resilience this may bring remains many years away.