Download the Key Minerals Forum Discussion Paper: A roadmap to de-risk copper and lithium supply chains
Restoring supply chain security and global competitiveness
What is the Discussion Paper about?
The Key Minerals Forum prepared this landmark discussion paper at the request of the United States (US) Senate and House Committee and caucus staff. It outlines urgent steps the US must take to reduce its reliance on geopolitical rivals and strengthen long-term defence, energy and industrial security by securing minerals supply chains.
The US remains significantly exposed in global copper and lithium supply chains at precisely the moment these minerals are becoming more essential—and more contested—than ever. To date, fragmented approaches, underpowered or ineffective tools, and insufficient collaboration with mineral-rich nations have hampered the US Government’s attempts to address critical minerals supply risks.
This paper synthesizes a series of frank, closed-door conversations with mining company executives, private investors, and decision-makers from copper- and lithium-rich nations. These focused on identifying value chain risks and the unique opportunity before the United States to reframe its engagement and provide a clear, actionable framework to reduce strategic vulnerability in copper and lithium—two minerals foundational to modern energy, defense, and industrial systems.
Actionable insights: Policy roadmaps for copper and lithium in the US
The paper introduces separate policy roadmaps for copper and lithium supply chains, with targeted tools that match the root causes of roadblocks for each unique commodity.
The paper outlines a menu of options for policymakers to evaluate and adapt, guided by strategic need and context. Some tools—such as contracts-for-difference or strategic stockpiling—are already used in analogous markets like energy and defense. But they must be designed with tight fiscal guardrails, time-bound horizons, and clear ROI thresholds to avoid the pitfalls of permanent subsidy, misallocated resources, or market distortions.
The path forward must be framed as an exercise in collaboration. Countries have made it clear that they are looking for partners who bring a long-term commitment, transparent capital, and a shared vision for development beyond the mine. US strategy must reflect that – not just through rhetoric, but through the structure of its investments and the nature of its engagement.
Actionable insights: the Minerals Resilience Framework
The Minerals Resilience Framework is a response to an identified, massive blind spot. It’s a first-of-its-kind set of clear guidelines and best practices for assessing vulnerabilities and responding to disruptions in mineral supply chains, by commodity and stage.
This framework reflects five realities:
- Not all miners are created equal. The majors are established multinationals with ample access to capital but significant risk to manage across assets all over the globe; others are capital-starved juniors, seeking investment to fuel risky, early-stage projects.
- Some tools work across the board – others are mineral-specific. Strategic reserves or price floors, for example, may be better suited to lithium than copper.
- Different segments of the value chain carry different risks. Upstream concentration may be tolerable if midstream is secure, but midstream or downstream bottlenecks present more systemic risk.
- The US will need to operate at speed, in partnership with allies. Tools must be deployed flexibly, through public-private vehicles and coordinated diplomacy, in both domestic and international contexts.
- Innovation is the key to reducing reliance on these tools, which themselves come with costs, to drive to the lowest cost responsible extraction and processing.
About the Key Minerals Forum
The Key Minerals Forum (KMF) is an informal coalition (as defined by the Federal LDA Act) formed by Clareo in March 2024, comprising a select group of mining CEOs. Formed as an outcome of the inaugural KMF Dinner Dialogue (October 2023), KMF engages Senators, Congressmen, agency staff, and stakeholders—including Indigenous and environmental leaders, think tanks, and others—to address minerals supply chain challenges, deepen US government understanding of mining, and support competitive U.S. approaches to derisking minerals supply.
Through dialogues, KMF built greater understanding of mining’s complexities and commodity-level differences. As a capstone to these dialogues, in November 2024 KMF produced a Business Blueprint identifying pathways to unlock supply and make the US a relevant player in minerals. The Blueprint informs a competitively differentiated U.S. strategy to secure an adequate, affordable, and secure supply of key minerals that is responsibly extracted and processed.
In delivering this work, KMF became a trusted expert, independent of individual company agendas, filling an unexpected void for deep sector knowledge in Washington. As a result, KMF has carried out briefings, advised program development, provided legislative input, and published numerous reports (such as this Copper-Lithium Roadmap and forthcoming discussion paper on innovation priorities in mining and mineral processing) for its members, Congress, federal agencies, and the broader public.
Hear from Clareo's experts with the latest mining thought leadership.
Clareo is an acknowledged expert and thought leader in critical minerals and the energy expansion. Our chair, Peter Bryant, is a sought-after speaker and commentator on the challenges the industry faces. Our work on these topics, particularly on what we’ve coined a forthcoming ‘minerals famine,’ has led to partnerships with leading think tanks such as the Baker Institute for Public Policy, the Payne Institute for Public Policy, the Development Partner Institute, and the Future Minerals Forum, of which Clareo is a founding content partner.
We believe mining is entering an era of unimagined opportunities.
And it’s through deliberate conversations, brave dialogues and stretching the boundaries of what’s possible that opportunities become realities.
Creating the future of mining in a minerals-intensive economy
