The UK Government has published its long-awaited Vision 2035: Critical Minerals Strategy, setting out a national commitment to secure resilient supply chains, accelerate decarbonised industry, and strengthen domestic capability in materials essential to our economic and national security. This latest strategy recognises an urgent global race for resources, driven by electrification, low-carbon infrastructure, defence systems, aerospace, and digital technology.
For the first time, aluminium is formally acknowledged as both a critical and strategic growth material for the UK economy. This reflects what our sector has long understood: that aluminium is the backbone of modern manufacturing, a key enabler of net-zero technologies, and a globally contested resource. Today’s announcement confirms that aluminium is no longer just another industrial metal – it is a material of national importance.
What This Means for the UK Aluminium Sector
The strategy commits to increasing the proportion of critical materials sourced within the UK, both through new supply and through recycling. It establishes long-term ambition for the UK to meet more of its own industrial needs through domestic processing, circular material flows and technology development. Significantly, it prioritises investment and policy support for mid-stream processing, recycling and advanced manufacturing, areas where the UK aluminium sector already demonstrates strength.
This direction resonates deeply with the aluminium industry. Unlike many critical minerals where the UK lacks natural reserves, aluminium’s value comes not from extraction but from our ability to recycle, refine, upgrade and reuse it to high standards, creating sovereign capability and industrial resilience. The policy’s explicit commitment to circularity and domestic production reinforces the growing strategic importance of UK remelting, scrap utilisation and downstream manufacturing.
The Role of the UK Aluminium Alliance
The Government’s strategy aligns closely with the work of the UK Aluminium Alliance, which brings together industry leaders to build evidence, data and policy influence around domestic capability – mapping skills, scrap flows, processing capacity, trade vulnerabilities, infrastructure gaps and opportunities for strategic investment. Its core mission mirrors the goals of the national strategy: to unlock the full value of UK aluminium and prevent high-quality scrap and secondary material from being lost through export or under-utilisation.
The Alliance is demonstrating why aluminium should be treated not simply as waste to be traded, but as a strategic national asset. Enabling UK manufacturers to secure supply of low-carbon material is not just an environmental ambition – it is a competitiveness imperative.
Looking Ahead
Recognition within the UK Critical Minerals Strategy marks a pivotal moment. As Government focuses on secure supply chains, carbon performance and resilient domestic capability, the aluminium sector has a unique opportunity to shape the direction of industrial strategy. The UK has deep strengths in remelting, recycling and advanced processing; if supported correctly, these can anchor secure supply and deliver competitive advantage across multiple strategic industries.
Recognition within the UK Critical Minerals Strategy is an important step, but it is not an end in itself. The real test will be how this recognition translates into practical policy, investment and regulatory decisions over the coming years. Through the UK Aluminium Alliance, ALFED will continue to provide evidence, engage with government and work with members to ensure aluminium’s newly stated strategic status is matched by meaningful support for UK production, recycling and downstream manufacturing.
To view the full strategy release on the GOV.UK website, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-critical-minerals-strategy/vision-2035-critical-minerals-strategy
