LONDON — The U.K. will break China’s stranglehold over crucial net-zero supply chains, Energy Minister Chris McDonald has pledged.
McDonald, a joint minister at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Business and Trade, told POLITICO he is determined to bolster domestic access to critical minerals.
Critical minerals like lithium and copper are used in essential net-zero technologies such as electric vehicles and batteries, as well as defense assets like F35 fighter jets.
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China currently controls 90 percent of rare earth refining, according to a government critical minerals strategy published last week.
