The governments of the U.S., Canada, Australia, South Korea, Japan, India, seven European nations, and the European Union have formed the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) with the stated aim to “catalyze public and private sector investments to build diverse, secure, and responsible global critical minerals supply chains.” As of October 2023, the partnership was working on 15 projects to secure minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earths by facilitating deals among private companies and helping with financing. It also hopes to de-risk China’s dominance and control of the minerals’ processing and refining markets and electric vehicles battery manufacturing capacity. This panel will discuss China’s outsized control of critical minerals, how the partnership was formed and is operating, and the potential impacts of the partnership on the minerals supply. The panel will explore the challenges facing the partners seeking to invest in major new sources of minerals, and the legal and regulatory hurdles of countries seeking investment from MSP partners. This panel will also analyze what the partnership means for international mining companies and what impacts the MSP could have on investment into U.S. domestic mining.
Video presentation from the 70th Annual Natural Resources and Energy Law Institute.
1 CLE Credit – Approval ID:
CO ID - 849637
This course has been accredited for CLE credit in Colorado. CLE credit hours shown are for Colorado only. A CLE course number for Colorado will be provided to attendees on their certificates of attendance once a course has been completed. New Mexico attorneys who complete a course must notify us (cle@rmmlf.org) because we are required to report credits for you. If this course has been approved for RPL/CPL credit with the American Association of Professional Landmen (AAPL), the credits will be listed below in a separate section for AAPL. If applicable, Component Codes for AAPL recertification will also be provided. Please contact RMMLF if you need independent verification by the provider of your attendance or participation for CLE purposes. Except as provided above, RMMLF generally does not apply for accreditation from any other MCLE/CPD organizations for its online legal education program. Upon completion of a program a certificate of attendance will be issued to all attendees. Except as provided above, attendees must verify with their respective state bars and CPD organizations and their specific rules as to whether or not the certificate of attendance will be recognized by that body for MCLE/CPD purposes, and the number of CLE/CPD credits that may be available. The live presentation of the on-demand program has been accredited in most mandatory states as part of a larger course, but such accreditation does not assure recognition of the on-demand program.
SAMANTHA CARL-YODER is a Policy Director in the Washinton, D.C., office of Brownstein, and the Co-Chair of the firm's international practice. She draws on her nearly 20 years of service at the U.S. State Department, working in both Washington, D.C. and embassies across the world, to build strategic partnerships for companies expanding domestically and overseas. Her sophisticated understanding of foreign policy and deep relationships with sovereign governments, third-party institutions and global media organizations is used to solve problems that require a multidisciplinary approach. She successfully shepherds companies into new markets, develops bilateral partnerships and manages senior relationships with dignitaries for multinational clients. In addition to her government outreach, Samantha forged lasting relationships with industry trade associations, think tanks, advocacy groups, chambers of commerce and media organizations. Before joining the private sector, Samantha served for nearly two decades as a foreign service officer in Indonesia, Peru, Myanmar (Burma) and Brazil. She also held senior positions in the Trump and Obama administrations, including serving as chief of staff to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the State Department, chief of staff to the Assistant Secretary of State at the Bureau of Energy Resources and as a senior advisor to two deputy secretaries.
DR. FABIAN E. VILLALOBOS is an engineer at RAND, and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He has an interest in the intersection of technology, economics, and geopolitics and primarily focuses on issues in national security. His recent work has included research on critical minerals and technology supply chains, U.C.-China technological competition, technological risk, electric vehicles, hypersonic missiles, fighter turbine engines, submersibles, and autonomous systems. Fabian has been invited to speak about critical minerals and battery supply chains to audiences that include U.S. government officials in the Departments of Defense, State, and Commerce, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives; think tanks and academic institutes; universities; and foreign consulates and embassies. His commentary has been featured in the World Economic Forum, The Hill, Barron's, DefenseNews, New Security Beat, and more. He has been quoted in the New York Times, PolitiFact, Factcheck.org, Indopacific Defense Forum, The Wire China, and more. He is a co-inventor and co-author of patents. Previously, he worked in industry at startups and established manufacturers alike supporting R&D, product development, quality assurance, business development, and more.
KENYON S. WEAVER is Senior Counsel at the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce. As Senior Counsel, Kenyon oversees CLDP's Energy Transition team of attorneys, specialists, and experts, which provides technical assistance on a government-to-government basis to ministries, regulators, and national energy companies on transparent and competitive legal and regulatory frameworks for sustainable investment in power, decarbonization, and minerals. Kenyon is a co-author of the Methane Abatement for Oil and Gas: Handbook for Policymakers, one of CLDP’s numerous best practice guides. Before joining CLDP, Kenyon was an attorney in the Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Washington, D.C. offices of Dentons, where he worked on cross-border transactions in energy and natural resources, economic sanctions, and trade and corporate issues. Kenyon received his J.D. in 2008 from Georgetown University Law Center, where he studied for a semester at Tsinghua University, in Beijing, China. He holds a B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard University. Prior to law school, Kenyon served for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Turkmenistan.
If available, this course will include materials (PowerPoints presentations and scholarly papers) authored by the speaker or speakers.
