The UK Government’s investment aims to strengthen domestic critical minerals supply chains, improve economic resilience, and reduce reliance on imported materials.

The funding, revealed as part of the Government’s ongoing Critical Minerals Strategy, will support projects focused on extraction, processing, recycling, and supply chain development, helping to secure the materials required for advanced manufacturing, defence, clean energy technologies, and economic growth.

ALFED said the investment represented the growing recognition of aluminium as a strategically important material for the UK’s future economy.

In 2024, aluminium was formally included within the UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy and identified as both a Critical Mineral and a Growth Mineral under the Government’s Vision 2035 framework.

This recognition followed several years of engagement between ALFED, Government departments, and industry stakeholders, during which ALFED advocated for aluminium’s inclusion on the basis of its importance to UK manufacturing, national resilience, economic growth, and supply chain security.

The Government’s latest investment package places emphasis on strengthening domestic capability, improving supply chain resilience, and increasing investment in recycling and processing infrastructure.

Historically, critical minerals policy has focused heavily on mining and primary production.

However, ALFED believes that recycling, remelting, and secondary material processing must also form a central part of the UK’s long-term resource security strategy.

The ability to recover, process, and remanufacture materials domestically reduces reliance on imports, strengthens supply chain resilience, and helps retain economic value within the UK economy.

In addition, aluminium can be recycled repeatedly without any loss of performance, with recycled aluminium requiring only around 5% of the energy needed to produce primary metal.

Looking ahead

As the Government develops the next phase of its Critical Minerals Strategy and wider Industrial Strategy, ALFED will continue to advocate for:

  • Greater recognition of recycling and secondary materials as strategic sources of supply.
  • Investment in UK recycling, remelting, sorting and advanced processing capability.
  • Policies that encourage domestic value retention and circular manufacturing.
  • Recognition of aluminium’s role in defence, infrastructure, energy transition and industrial resilience.
  • Improved alignment between critical minerals policy, industrial strategy, trade policy and manufacturing competitiveness.
  • Support for innovation and investment across the aluminium value chain.

For more information on the funding, click here.