UK has no immediate plans for critical minerals price floor, minister says

By Eric Onstad

LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Britain has no plans to match the United States in supporting domestic rare earth companies with a price floor to cut reliance on dominant producer China, Industry Minister Chris McDonald said.

So far Britain is attracting adequate investment in the critical minerals sector to develop home-grown supply, but it will monitor the situation in case other mechanisms are needed, he told Reuters.

Group of Seven (G7) members and the European Union are considering price floors to promote rare earth production, as well as taxes on some Chinese exports to incentivise investment, sources told Reuters in September.

The U.S. provided a guaranteed minimum price to rare earths group MP Materials in July as part of a multibillion-dollar investment by the Pentagon and sources told Reuters the mechanism would likely be extended to other firms.

On Monday, McDonald met with U.S. Pentagon officials in London, who outlined their support policies for critical minerals, including the price floor, he said.

"We're doing most of them but we're not doing all of them, and a price floor is one of them that's currently not on our list. But maybe I'll keep an eye on how that goes," he said in an interview.

"Ultimately for me it's about can we attract this investment, and at the moment we are attracting the investment."

Britain launched its critical minerals strategy last month, which set targets to meet 10% of domestic demand from UK mining and 20% from recycling by 2035, backed by up to 50 million pounds in funding.

China accounts for about 70% of rare earth mining and 90% of refining.

Britain, which currently produces 6% of its critical mineral needs domestically, is focusing its strategy on lithium, nickel, tungsten and rare earths.

Britain expects lithium processing projects in northern England to break ground within the next few years and aims to produce at least 50,000 metric tons of lithium by 2035.

The country also plans to include stockpiling of critical minerals in its defence procurement plan.

(Reporting by Eric Onstad, Editing by Louise Heavens)