The Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) is a transnational association whose members seek to secure a stable supply of raw materials for their economies. [1] The MSP is composed of 14 countries and the EU: Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. [2] [3] Members profess a commitment to high Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) standards. [4]
According to the inaugural announcement made at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in June 2022, [5] [6] the goal of the MSP "is to ensure that critical minerals are produced, processed, and recycled in a manner that supports the ability of countries to realize the full economic development benefit of their geological endowments." [7]
India was inducted into the MSP in June 2023. [8] Estonia joined the MSP in early March 2024. [9]
The governments of Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia met with the MSP members at Investing in African Mining Indaba on 7 February 2023. [4]
The head of the Alaska Miners Association on 1 November 2022 said that "I worry that the MSP will prompt decision makers within the federal administration to prioritize mining in other countries in an attempt to walk a line between getting the minerals we must have but not developing ones in America under the name of conservation." [7]
Greenwashing, also called green sheen, is a form of advertising or marketing spin that deceptively uses green PR and green marketing to persuade the public that an organization's products, goals, or policies are environmentally friendly. Companies that intentionally adopt greenwashing communication strategies often do so to distance themselves from their environmental lapses or those of their suppliers. Firms engage in greenwashing for two primary reasons: to appear legitimate and to project an image of environmental responsibility to the public. Because there "is no harmonised definition of greenwashing", a determination that this is occurring in a given instance may be subjective.
NMDC Limited, formerly National Mineral Development Corporation, is an Indian public sector undertaking involved in the exploration of iron ore, rock, gypsum, magnesite, diamond, tin, tungsten, graphite, coal etc. It is India's largest iron ore producer and exporter, producing more than 45 million tonnes of iron ore from three mechanized mines in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. It also operates the only mechanized diamond mine in the country at Panna in Madhya Pradesh.
ENDIAMA E.P. is the state-run national diamond company of Angola. It is the exclusive concessionary of mining rights in the domain of rough diamonds in Angola.
PJSC Polyus is a Russian gold mining company. It is the largest gold producer in Russia and one of the top 10 gold mining companies globally by output. It is headquartered in Moscow and is listed on both the Moscow and London Stock Exchanges. Polyus’ main assets are located in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East - in the regions of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, Magadan Oblast and the Republic of Sakha.
Pebble Mine is the common name of a proposed copper-gold-molybdenum mining project in the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska, near Lake Iliamna and Lake Clark. It was discovered in 1987, optioned by Northern Dynasty Minerals in 2001, explored in 2002, and drilled from 2002-2013 with discovery in 2005. Preparing for the permitting process began and administrative review lasted over 13 years.
The Linux Foundation (LF) is a non-profit organization established in 2000 to support Linux development and open-source software projects.
Deep sea mining is the extraction of minerals from the seabed of the deep sea. The main ores of commercial interest are polymetallic nodules, which are found at depths of 4–6 km (2.5–3.7 mi) primarily on the abyssal plain. The Clarion–Clipperton zone (CCZ) alone contains over 21 billion metric tons of these nodules, with minerals such as copper, nickel, and cobalt making up 2.5% of their weight. It is estimated that the global ocean floor holds more than 120 million tons of cobalt, five times the amount found in terrestrial reserves.
The mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo produces copper, diamonds, tantalum, tin, gold, and more than 70% of global cobalt production. Minerals and petroleum are central to the DRC's economy, making up more than 95% of the value of its exports.
FLSmidth & Co. A/S is a Danish multinational technology company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. With almost 11,000 employees worldwide, it provides the global mining and cement industries with equipment and services. For the mining industry, the company provides technology for copper, gold, nickel, zinc and lithium mining, and for the cement industry, it provides technology for cement production. FLSmidth is listed on NASDAQ OMX Nordic Copenhagen in the C25 index and has offices in more than 60 countries worldwide.
The mining industry of Botswana has dominated the national economy of Botswana since the 1970s, being a primary sector industry. Diamond has been the leading component of the mineral sector ever since production of gems started being extracted by the mining company Debswana. Most of Botswana's diamond production is of gem quality, resulting in the country's position as the world's leading producer of diamond by value. Copper, gold, nickel, coal and soda ash production also has held significant, though smaller, roles in the economy.
NATO maintains foreign relations with many non-member countries across the globe. NATO runs a number of programs which provide a framework for the partnerships between itself and these non-member nations, typically based on that country's location. These include the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and the Partnership for Peace.
An energy transition is a major structural change to energy supply and consumption in an energy system. Currently, a transition to sustainable energy is underway to limit climate change. Most of the sustainable energy is renewable energy. Therefore, another term for energy transition is renewable energy transition. The current transition aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy quickly and sustainably, mostly by phasing-down fossil fuels and changing as many processes as possible to operate on low carbon electricity. A previous energy transition perhaps took place during the Industrial Revolution from 1760 onwards, from wood and other biomass to coal, followed by oil and later natural gas.
The Sangdong mine located in South Korea is one of the largest tungsten mines in the world. The mine is located 187 km southeast of Seoul, approximately three hours’ drive via expressways and local sealed highways. Temperatures rise to a maximum of about 30 °C during the wet summer months of June to August. The winter period is relatively dry and extends from October to March, with freezing temperatures occurring during the period December to March.
Keeper Security, Inc. (Keeper) is a global cybersecurity company founded in 2009 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Keeper provides zero-knowledge security and encryption software covering functions such as password and passkey management, secrets management, privileged access management, secure remote access and encrypted messaging.
Bolt is an Estonian mobility company that offers ride-hailing, micromobility rental, food and grocery delivery, and carsharing services. The company is headquartered in Tallinn and operates in over 500 cities in more than 45 countries in Europe, Africa, Western Asia and Latin America. The company has more than 150 million customers and more than 3 million driver and courier partners. The company has plans for an initial public offering in 2025.
Appian Corporation is an American cloud computing and enterprise software company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, part of the Dulles Technology Corridor. The company sells a platform as a service (PaaS) for building enterprise software applications. It is focused on low-code development, process mining, business process management, and case management markets in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
CNX Resources Corporation is a natural gas company based in Pittsburgh with operations in the Appalachian Basin, primarily in the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. It also develops coalbed methane properties in Virginia along with a methane capture and abatement program. The company also has extensive midstream operations and is one of the largest producers of natural gas in the United States.
In the context of the enlargement of NATO, Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty is the origin for the April 1999 statement of a "NATO open door policy". The open door policy requires a consensus in favour of countries applying to join NATO, as all member states must ratify the protocol enabling a new country to become a member of NATO. The open door policy "is aimed at promoting stability and cooperation".
Ambler Road is the common name of the "Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project", a proposed industrial haul road that would connect the Dalton Highway to the area around the Ambler Mining District, allowing for future mining projects in the area. The project is being managed by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA)—Alaska's state-owned economic development authority.
Governments designate critical raw materials (CRM) as critical for their economies so there is no single list of such raw materials as the list varies from country to country as does the definition of critical. They include technology-critical elements, rare-earth elements and strategic materials.