Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 28 December 2023 the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan approved Resolution No. 1221 (Adilet ID P2300001221) adopting the Comprehensive Plan for the Development of the Rare and Rare-Earth Metals Industry for 2024-2028. The plan is the umbrella industrial- policy instrument for Kazakhstan's critical-minerals sector and was developed to fulfil the priorities set out in President Tokayev's 1 September 2023 Address to the Nation ("Economic Course of Fair Kazakhstan"). The plan is coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development (MIID) and brings together the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund, Tau-Ken Samruk JSC, the Bank for Development of Kazakhstan (BDK) and KAZNEDRA (the geological-information operator). It identifies four sectoral problems — low geological-exploration coverage, weak commercial exploitation of technogenic mineral formations (mine tailings / slags), depreciated enterprise capital, and an underdeveloped regulatory framework — and pledges roughly USD 25m of state seed-investment to attract foreign direct investment, targets a 40% increase in production volume of rare and rare-earth metals by 2028, and commits to launch at least five new production facilities (including modernisation of the Zhezkazganredmet RSE workshop). It is paired with the launch of the public mineral.gov.kz geological-information portal as part of the government's broader subsoil-use digitisation programme.

President Paul Biya signed Loi n°2023/014 on 19 December 2023, replacing the 2016 mining code (Loi n°2016/017) and significantly enlarging state control over Cameroon's mineral sector. The law vests SONAMINES (Société Nationale des Mines) with an exclusive statutory monopoly over the purchase and commercialisation of gold and diamonds nationwide, mandates a 10% non-dilutable free-carry equity stake for the state in all mining enterprises, and introduces a production-sharing mechanism (1–5% of finished product for precious substances; 2–15% of raw ore for others) layered on top of revised ad valorem royalties (5% for precious metals, 3% for base metals, 10% for radioactive substances). The code provides the legal framework for SONAMINES-led reindustrialisation of large iron-ore and bauxite projects, including Mbalam-Nabeba and Minim-Martap.

Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda, Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dr. Dele Alake unveiled a Seven-Point Agenda in September 2023 to transform Nigeria's solid-minerals sector — later operationalised as the Energy Transition and Critical Minerals (ETCM) Roadmap framework. The agenda mandates joint ventures between mining multinationals and Nigerian partners, formalises artisanal miners, establishes the Mines Surveillance Task Force, audits all mining licences, builds big-data inventories on seven priority minerals, and authorises six domestic Mineral Processing Centres. In 2024 President Tinubu directed that mining licences be issued only to firms that build in-country processing capacity — effectively banning raw-ore export of lithium and other critical minerals — and the Federal Government revoked 924 dormant licences in April 2024. It is the first Nigerian framework explicitly tying raw-mineral export curbs to downstream-processing mandates, paralleling Indonesia hilirisasi, DRC ARECOMS and Zimbabwe lithium- concentrate regimes.

On 17 June 2023, the Prime Minister's Office issued a formal notification establishing the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), an apex civil-military body chaired by the Prime Minister with the Chief of Army Staff and federal/ provincial leadership as members. SIFC operates as a "single window" to fast-track foreign direct investment in five strategic sectors: Defence Production, Agriculture and Livestock, Minerals, IT and Telecommunication, and Energy. The council is the principal vehicle through which Pakistan is channelling Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sovereign capital — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain — into headline projects including the Reko Diq copper-gold restart, Saudi/UAE minerals MoUs, and the 2025 Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum. SIFC received statutory backing on 18 August 2023 via the Board of Investment (Amendment) Act, 2023, which inserted Chapter II-A giving SIFC overriding authority over other laws.

France's first dedicated critical-minerals industrial-finance instrument: a €500m state contribution to a critical metals and rare materials investment fund, jointly announced by the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Ecological Transition on 11 May 2023, targeting €2bn total fundraising including private capital. Managed by InfraVia Capital Partners with Caisse des Dépôts as state operator, the fund invests as minority partner across extraction, processing and recycling — in France, Europe and globally — prioritising off-take agreements for French and European industry. The fund operationalises the Stratégie Nationale Métaux Critiques framework (Varin Report delivered 10 January 2022) alongside the OFREMI critical-minerals observatory at BRGM and the inter-ministerial delegate for strategic-metals supply security.

Loi n° 2023-973 du 23 octobre 2023 relative à l'industrie verte (the Green Industry Law) is France's first comprehensive industrial-policy framework since France 2030 (2021). Published in the Journal officiel on 24 October 2023, it pursues three objectives: (i) accelerate the siting of strategic industrial projects on French territory, (ii) channel public procurement toward "virtuous" companies, and (iii) mobilise private savings for green-industrial CapEx. Its centrepiece is the new "Projet d'intérêt national majeur" (PINM) status, an exceptional procedure that fast-tracks urban planning, environmental permitting, and grid connection for projects deemed strategic for ecological transition or national sovereignty (gigafactories, hydrogen electrolysers, advanced semiconductor fabs). The law also creates the Plan d'épargne avenir climat (PEAC), a long-duration retail savings product reserved for under-21s and earmarked for European green-industrial financing, and codifies a 2023-2030 national green-industry strategy.

On 20 April 2023, President Gabriel Boric announced Chile's National Lithium Strategy ("Estrategia Nacional del Litio") in a national broadcast from La Moneda. The strategy mandates state majority participation in projects deemed strategic for the country and creates a state-owned National Lithium Company ("Empresa Nacional del Litio", subject to Congressional approval) covering the full productive cycle from exploration through battery cell assembly and recycling. In the interim, the existing state-owned firms Codelco (copper) and ENAMI take the lead — Codelco for the Atacama salar (where SQM and Albemarle operate under existing leases) and ENAMI for the Maricunga salar. The strategy also commits to a network of protected salt flats targeting 30% protection by 2030 and promotes new lower-impact extraction technologies (notably direct lithium extraction, DLE). The full policy document "Estrategia Nacional del Litio — Por Chile y su Gente" was published by the Ministry of Economy on 15 June 2023.

Statutory Instrument 57 of 2023, the Base Minerals Export Control (Unbeneficiated Base Mineral Ores) (Amendment) Order, 2023 (No. 1), was issued by Zimbabwe's Minister of Mines and Mining Development (Hon. Winston Chitando) in April 2023 to amend the foundational SI 5 of 2023 ban on raw base-mineral ore exports. The amendment imposes lithium-specific permit conditions: exporters must either own an Approved Processing Plant (APP) or contractually commit to building one within two years of receiving an export permit, unbeneficiated lithium permits may only be granted to Zimbabwean citizens or wholly-Zimbabwean-owned entities, and any such permit further requires the President's concurrence. The order also requires that beneficiated lithium export prices not fall below the floor set by the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ), and stipulates penalties of up to level 9 fines or twice the value of the mineral involved, plus up to two years' imprisonment, for non-compliance. SI 57 sits between the December 2022 lithium-bearing-ore ban (SI 213/2022) and the February 2026 ministerial directive that suspended all raw-mineral and lithium-concentrate exports outright — it is the foundational statutory architecture that the 2026 reset later operated on top of.

The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Act 2023 (Act No. 12 of 2023, Cth) received royal assent on 11 April 2023 and established the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) as a corporate Commonwealth entity under the PGPA Act 2013, formally constituted on 18 September 2023. The Act commits A$15 billion of concessional finance (loans, equity and guarantees) to projects in seven declared priority areas: renewables and low-emission technologies; medical science; transport; value-add in agriculture, forestry and fisheries; value-add in resources; defence capability; and enabling capabilities (advanced manufacturing, AI, robotics, quantum). The NRFC predates and underpins the 2024 Future Made in Australia package -- it is the equity/loan-finance instrument of the Australian industrial-policy stack, distinct from the FMIA umbrella framework and from the FMIA Production Tax Credits Act 2024 (the tax-credit instrument).