Following preliminary discussions at the annual G7 Summit in France this week, the group zeroed in yesterday on an updated Critical Minerals Action Plan — a follow-up to the plan launched in 2025.
The plan focuses on securing and diversifying critical minerals supply chains in order to build collective resilience. The G7 says that Australia — a key partner country of the G7 — supports the initiative.
Highlighting the use of non-market policies — including export restrictions and politically driven trade measures on critical minerals — the G7 warns that such actions put economic security and resilience at risk, stressing the importance of working with partners through collaborative frameworks.
The G7 has affirmed its Roadmap to Promote Standards-based Market for Critical Minerals, built around six pillars.
Industrial cooperation
The G7 commits to the diversification of critical minerals value chains, with a renewed focus on local value creation, promoting innovation, and working with partner countries to develop processing and industrial capacity.
The main focus here is to advance production, processing, and recycling across the critical minerals supply chains throughout partner countries so as to reduce dependency on single suppliers of resources.
The G7 states a goal of reducing dependencies on a single supplier to under 60% by 2030, with that amount further decreasing over time to 50% as soon as possible.
With 195 projects announced since the start of 2026 and €64 billion ($104.8 billion) in investment, the G7 and partner countries reaffirmed their dedication to this goal.
Financing
The G7 notes that in order to promote further industrial capacity and the growth of processing and recycling in diversified countries, both public and private capital needs to be mobilised. Financing, the G7 says, will help close the supply gap in critical minerals in the run-up to 2030.
The G7 has called on multilateral development banks and other development partners to design and implement strategies to facilitate funding and lift global mining standards amongst the G7, like-minded partners, and developing countries.
Market structuring
With a goal of supply chain resilience and diversification, the G7 notes the importance in discussing development policies and mechanisms that will support positive market conditions and closer cooperation with trusted partners.
On both the demand and supply side, options under review range from diversification requirements and revenue-stabilisation tools to joint procurement and trade instruments such as quotas and price floors.
Any measures taken must weigh effectiveness against the impacts on competitiveness, public finance, and macroeconomic conditions, particularly for midstream and downstream industries, while also recognising the costs of inaction.
Transparency and traceability
The G7 recognises that supply chain security hinges on strong transparency and traceability measures and acknowledges the work by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) in establishing key mechanisms to ensure these efforts.
Current work is piloting the tracing of lithium and nickel with regard to their origins, with the G7 committing to extending the pilot to five additional critical minerals each year, with a special focus on rare earths.
The transparency of global raw material markets and supply chains will provide better pricing, demand, and processing capability visibility, with the goal of promoting a “level playing field in the extraction of critical minerals by aligning practices with internationally recognised labour standards and encouraging coordinated action to address systematic risks of forced labour”.
Stockpiling
The G7 commits to the development of domestic stockpiling capabilities, with clear frameworks on best practices, methodologies, procurement, and release mechanisms.
This stockpiling will ultimately act as a hedge against supply crises and prevent pricing instability.
Recycling
The G7 also commits to the growth of the circular economy as a way to address the growing demand for critical minerals, while also mitigating environmental impacts. The statement notes that the recycling of critical minerals will support both the supply and demand markets and establish efficient and competitive secondary raw materials markets.
The G7 also recognises the importance of alternative and secondary sources including mine waste and tailings.
The establishment of the Critical Minerals Resilience and Production Alliance
To advance these objectives and ensure long‑term coordination, the G7 has established a non‑binding Critical Minerals Resilience and Production Alliance, with terms annexed to the declaration.
Building on the existing Critical Minerals Production Alliance, the new initiative will be open to like‑minded partners, subject to member approval, providing a platform to strengthen diversification and resilience across critical minerals value chains while streamlining existing raw materials programs.
In addition, a new G7 platform for Critical Minerals Cooperation will facilitate discussions, data‑driven decision‑making, and coordination among members.
The platform will consult, as appropriate, the IEA’s Critical Mineral Security Program and the OECD to provide analytical assessments of market developments and supply chain vulnerabilities. It will also share information on stockpiles, conduct emergency exercises, and monitor progress on financing, diversification, and transparency commitments.
The G7 has called on the IEA and OECD to provide data within their expertise to help members identify early warnings of market distortions and plan coordinated responses.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: G7
