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Future Minerals Forum 2025

janv. 20


Last week, the Secretariat of the Global Council for Responsible Transition Minerals – represented by Justin Vaïsse, Paris Peace Forum Director General and Solange Harpham, Head of the Environment and Transition Minerals Programme – were invited by His Excellency Bandar Alkhorayef, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources in Saudi Arabia to speak at the Ministerial Roundtable of the 4th edition of the Future Minerals Forum (FMF) in Riyadh.


The FMF is an international event founded in 2022 by the government of Saudi Arabia. It has since exponentially grown from 3,500 participants in 2022 to nearly 20,000 participants and ambitions to become an international platform gathering governments, international organizations, industry leaders and other stakeholders to foster collaboration around the supply of transition minerals. This year, the forum emphasized the need for sustainable practices, investment, international cooperation, technology, infrastructures and partnerships to meet the projected 500% increase in global mineral demand by 2050.


The FMF reflects Saudi Arabia’s recently launched Vision 2030, aiming at accelerating efforts to position itself as a major regional player of the minerals sector. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 positions mining as a potential third pillar of its economy, resulting in the launching of a National Geological Database, the revision of its Mining Investment Law, and the announcement of nine new projects expected to attract $32 billion investments in the sector (Minerals Meridian).


The Ministerial Roundtable gathered over 90 countries, 50 multilateral organizations, industry associations, NGOs and leaders from the world’s largest mines. Justin Vaïsse, Director General of the Paris Peace Forum, highlighted the role of multi-actor processes and the critical importance of multistakeholder collaboration in addressing the gap in transition minerals governance:

"There is a clear gap in global governance when it comes to transition minerals. Emerging export restrictions are driving up the cost of minerals and, as a result, making the green transition more expensive. Geopolitical competition is intensifying, which, in turn, is sustaining fragmentation, uneven regulatory frameworks and enforcement of international norms. Amidst these challenges, resource-rich countries are facing exacerbated difficulties harnessing and benefiting from their resources." […] We need a global process that includes all parties and countries, including China, as well as multi-actor processes involving governments, NGOs and the private sector." He also took the opportunity to thank the roundtable’s moderator, Kandeh Yumkella, for being a member of the Global Council for Responsible Transition Minerals member.


The roundtable culminated in a number of outcomes, including the announcement of the development of an international critical minerals framework to promote global collaboration in creating resilient supply chains and the creation of a growing network of 11 centers of excellence for capacity building in Africa, Western and Central Asia.


The Global Council for Responsible Transition Minerals’ Secretariat supports the development of an international framework as a collaborative tool to enable investments, policy alignment, transparency, decarbonization of supply chains and value creation. The creation of an international agreement for the management of resources features among the Global Council’s seven key recommendations. Such a comprehensive and equitable governance framework is essential to prevent escalating geopolitical tensions, worsening environmental degradation and human rights abuses, while ensuring the race for resources does not unfairly favor industrialized nations’ energy transitions at the expense of equitable development. Additionally, the Global Council’s Secretariat commends the selection of Morocco’s University Mohammed VI Polytechnic, one of Paris Peace Forum’s strategic partners, as a sustainability hub.

 

Justin Vaïsse, Paris Peace Forum Director General, at the Ministerial Roundtable (FMF 2025)
Justin Vaïsse, Paris Peace Forum Director General, at the Ministerial Roundtable (FMF 2025)


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Global Council for Responsible Transition Minerals

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