Critical Minerals Supply Finance
Provides a guarantee to a bank making a loan to an overseas project which has an offtake agreement in place with a UK exporter to purchase and import critical minerals products.
How it works
We can offer a loan guarantee to an overseas project sponsor for projects (including mining, processing, manufacturing and recycling) which have a long-term offtake contract in place, to supply UK exporters with critical minerals products.
Critical minerals will be defined in line with the UK’s Critical Minerals list developed by the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre which identifies minerals considered to have significant supply risks. We may be able to support other minerals on a case-by-case basis upon cross-government consideration.
We welcome discussions on overseas critical minerals projects which UKEF may be able to support, particularly any that supply the UK automotive, clean energy, aerospace and defence sectors.
Eligibility
- There must be an Offtake Agreement between the overseas project finance company or overseas supplier of critical minerals-dependent goods, and a UK exporter.
- The critical mineral must be on the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre list (table 1): UK 2024 criticality assessment.
- The UK party to the Offtake Agreement must qualify as an exporter and be carrying on business in the UK. To qualify as an exporter, the company must have:
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- generated in the last financial year, at least 20% of its UK turnover from UK export sales; OR
- on average over the last three financial years, generated at least 20% of its UK turnover from UK export sales.
- the above assessment is in relation to the UK exporter’s total business operations – it is not limited to the onward export of the critical minerals.
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Other information
- The transaction will need to satisfy UKEF’s anti-bribery and corruption and environmental, social and human rights due diligence processes.
- Fossil fuel policy: please note that since March 2021, UKEF does not provide new support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas (including supporting the extraction, production, transportation, refining and marketing of crude oil, natural gas or thermal coal overseas as well as fossil-fuel fired power plants), other than in exceptional circumstances.
How to apply
If you would like an initial discussion or to enquire further, please contact us.