Unlocking energy security: The essential role of critical minerals

What’s happening

• Global energy demand is increasing.
• Accelerating demand for clean energy is boosting global need for critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements.
• Critical minerals are essential for clean energy technologies such as batteries, solar panels, electrical wiring, and electric vehicle motors.
• Governments and companies are racing to secure reliable supplies of critical minerals.

Why

• In the next decade, demand for critical minerals could outpace production.
• Critical minerals are the subject of complex geopolitical competition.
• Regions that supply minerals are increasingly impacted by resource nationalism.
• China dominates the minerals processing sector and has used export controls to restrict trade.
• The extraction, processing, and trade of critical minerals can pose serious social and environmental challenges, such as community displacement, deforestation, and habitat destruction.

Why it matters

• Securing sufficient and sustainable critical minerals to meet accelerating demand is crucial to ensure national energy security.
• Policymakers, investors, and corporations must balance efforts to boost and streamline extraction and refining processes while using responsible mining practices.
• Pressure will continue to increase for developers to engage with local communities to obtain a social license to mine.

How we can help

• Evaluate minerals sector developments, including available subsidies and incentives and applicable regulations such as foreign direct investment programs.
• Advise on all aspects of mining development, production, processing, and operations, including corporate structuring and negotiation of commercial arrangements.
• Identify and manage risks and opportunities associated with obtaining critical minerals certifications.
• Advise on responsible mining practices, ethical sourcing policies, and environmental compliance.

What we do

Broad mining capabilities

• Advise mining stakeholders broadly on issues including transaction structure, health, safety, and environmental considerations, regulatory and human rights due diligence, and cybersecurity.
• Global team with significant experience working across legal disciplines, jurisdictions, and industry sectors.

Compliance

• Assessment of compliance with international frameworks, including the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, the U.S. One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals From Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.
• Advise on independent third-party certifications, such as the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA).

Authored by Markley Schlegel.