South Korea launches strategy to secure critical minerals supply

The Republic of Korea government has announced a national strategy to secure critical minerals, reduce dependency on a few foreign suppliers, and scale domestic production, recycling, and international cooperation.

• Main action: The strategy focuses on expanding domestic production, scaling recycling, and bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Key measurable targets and projects: national production target >300,000 tonnes/year by 2028; POSCO Future M inaugurated a NMC precursor plant in Gwangyang (June) with ~45,000 t/year capacity; three additional NMC plants planned at Saemangeum including one plant expected to produce ~120,000 t/year once at full capacity. The plan also includes a new law on battery waste treatment, a certification system for recycled materials, and incentives and standards for industry participants.

• Background, partnerships and investments: The strategy includes multilateral alignment (Seoul joined the G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan and chairs the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) until 2026) and multiple bilateral agreements. Notable implementation details:

  • Forum: Public-private Forum on Critical Minerals, held in March 2025 (location/time not specified in article); agenda: recovery/recycling of 10 strategic minerals including lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite; target to raise recycling rate from 2% to 20% by 2030.
  • G7: June 2025 summit meetings where President Lee held bilateral talks with South Africa, Brazil, Mexico on lithium/copper/rare earths; agreements with Australia on critical minerals and supply chain security; first Korea-Japan critical minerals dialogue also held in 2025.
  • Overseas investments: KOMIR acquired 46% stake in the Ambatovy nickel-cobalt mine (Madagascar); POSCO operates the Mahenge graphite project (Tanzania) and secured a six-year supply contract with Syrah Resources to import up to 60,000 t/year of graphite from Balama (Mozambique); STX Corporation holds 40% of Caula graphite production (Mozambique); Korea Zinc invested $85.2 million in Canadian startup The Metals Company (deep-sea mining developer).