# UK remains dangerously dependent on China for critical minerals, MPs warn > UK lawmakers warn Britain is dangerously dependent on China for critical minerals, with lithium demand set to rise 45-fold by 2030. The committee proposes capping imports at 60% from any single country and backs £400 million in domestic production funding. - Type: AI news - Page: https://completeaitraining.com/news/uk-remains-dangerously-dependent-on-china-for-critical/ - Published: 2026-11-05 - Updated: 2026-11-05 - Author: Jeroen Erne - Jobs: Executives and strategy, Finance, Government, Legal, PR and communications, Real estate and construction - Reading time: 3 min A UK parliamentary investigation has concluded that Britain is "dangerously" dependent on China for critical raw materials essential to military rearmament, renewable energy infrastructure, and AI development. The business select committee's findings, published this week, warn that without urgent intervention, the country's economic and national security strategies face a clear supply-chain vulnerability that Beijing can exploit at will. "Critical minerals are the alpha of the new economy," said committee chair Liam Byrne. "We cannot rearm Britain, build AI or deliver net zero unless we secure the minerals these technologies depend on. Yet 16 years after China first weaponised its chokehold over rare earths, Britain remains dangerously exposed." The report marks the second time in a week that Byrne's committee has criticised the government's China policy. China controls the global supply of rare earths and their refined byproducts - materials embedded in military jets, car-locking systems, consumer appliances, and the permanent magnets required for advanced defence applications. #### The refining bottleneck The committee heard that processing, not raw extraction, is where supply chains are most constrained. China dominates the refining of seven mineral categories, including refined lithium for electric vehicles and rare earths used in aircraft fuselage and wings to withstand temperature extremes. MPs were told that lithium demand alone will increase 45-fold between now and 2030, locking the UK into a high-risk dependency. Demand for rare earths used in permanent magnets for military jets is projected to rise 16-fold over the same period - precisely when Britain is attempting to rebuild its defence capabilities. China demonstrated its willingness to weaponise this dependence when it cut off rare earth supplies in 2025. Separate restrictions on legacy chips, triggered by a dispute over Dutch intervention in the China-owned Nexperia, left the European car industry "days away" from stoppages last October. #### A reprieve with strings attached Donald Trump secured a one-year reprieve on global export restrictions for rare earths from Xi Jinping in October last year, later extended to January 2027 after the Chinese president's visit to Washington. The committee's report suggests this leaves the UK at the mercy of US-China relations rather than in control of its own supply security. The most "realistic" solution, according to the findings, is for the UK to work closely with G7 partners, the rest of Europe, and Indo-Pacific countries to aggregate demand and bring new suppliers online. The committee drew up a 10-point plan that includes identifying domestic mining, refining, and recycling opportunities; developing a strategy to reduce business procurement from China; unlocking investment; and assessing planning and permitting barriers. #### Government transparency under scrutiny The committee said its investigation was frustrated by a lack of government transparency. "Parliament has no visibility of the capabilities the government is seeking to protect, the vulnerabilities it has identified, or the projects it is backing to reduce risk," the report stated. As a result, MPs could not express confidence that the government could satisfy any of its 10 proposed tests. "The UK requires new institutional and financial muscle," the committee concluded. A government spokesperson rejected the claim that no critical minerals strategy exists, pointing to £400 million in funding "to ramp up domestic production and recycling" and new international partnerships. "Our strategy also sets clear goals for 2035, including meeting 10% of demand through domestic production and 20% through recycling, with no more than 60% of any critical minerals coming from any single country," they added. #### Why this matters for executives and strategy leaders For executives in finance, defence supply chains, and energy infrastructure, the committee's findings signal that critical mineral dependency is now a board-level strategic risk - not a procurement afterthought. The proposed "critical minerals finance facility," combining grants, equity, and debt to accelerate diversification, could reshape investment flows into domestic mining and recycling ventures. Planning and permitting reform, if acted upon, would directly affect real estate and construction interests tied to extraction and processing sites. Government affairs teams should track whether the 10-point plan gains traction, as the current 60% single-country cap suggests hard procurement limits may follow. --- This is the Markdown form of https://completeaitraining.com/news/uk-remains-dangerously-dependent-on-china-for-critical/. The whole site is mapped at https://completeaitraining.com/llms.txt.