LAST week along with my Cornish Labour MP colleagues Noah Law and Anna Gelderd, I took a delegation of critical minerals businesses to No 10 Downing Street.

The delegation included representatives from Cornish Metals (South Crofty), Cornish Lithium and Cornwall Resources (tungsten). We were joined by the Cornwall Mining and Geo-Resources Alliance which is the industry-funded trade body representing the entire Cornish mining sector. We went to meet officials from No 10, the Treasury, the Department for Business & Trade and the Office for Investment.

The objective of the meeting was, following the launch of the government’s Critical Minerals Strategy in November, to raise the profile of just what is available across the Duchy and the overall value and importance to the UK economy. Western economies face a huge challenge in transitioning away from fossil fuels and from Chinese domination.

The last government completely failed to grasp the risk of Chinese domination, sat by and watched as the Chinese bought up so much of the world’s reserves of critical minerals to the extent that the UK now faces huge exposure and reliance on Chinese-controlled minerals. There’s a reason that western governments are now trawling the world trying to lay claim to critical mineral sites here, there and everywhere.

This is the strategy that the Chinese adopted two decades ago. Their worldwide hold on the critical minerals sector is extremely dangerous as, if left unchecked, they will be able to control some of the world’s most important industrial sectors. I’m sure in future many books will be written about how governments the western world over were asleep at the wheel on critical minerals.

Like the UK government, these same governments are also now trying to sail their economies away from the rocks of oil and gas reliance. But to do so, they need critical minerals – lots of them. Cornwall, with our rich deposits of tin, lithium, tungsten and more, has become a strategically significant region for UK plc.

Back at Downing Street the businesses came together to present the Case for Cornwall. We have already seen a commitment of £50-million through the Critical Minerals Strategy, £31-million National Wealth Fund (NWF) support for Cornish Lithium and £28-million NWF support for Cornish Metals.

We are urging the government to move further and faster, with a particular focus on UK-based investment. We also made the point very clearly at the meeting that local communities in Cornwall must be direct beneficiaries of this mineral wealth and investment. That means not just the stable, secure direct and indirect jobs that will come from the return of Cornish mining, but also the infrastructure and public services that support our local communities.

When it comes to industrial opportunities, critical minerals are one of the few aces that we have up our sleeve in Cornwall, so we need to play our hand very smartly.

To have the attention of those at the very top of government is a good start. Now we need to transform that attention from fine words into tangible commitments to public and private investment.