Demand for data centres presents challenges and opportunities for UK critical mineral supply chains

Critical minerals are essential to the UK’s economy, national security, and clean energy transition. Surging demand for such materials, driven by the UK’s ambition to become a global leader in digital technologies, will place unprecedented pressure on already vulnerable global supply chains. A new report published by the UK Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre (CMIC) presents both the opportunities for innovation-led economic growth and the challenges associated with securing the materials required for data centres, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.

Data centres are now recognised as critical national infrastructure in the UK, with more than 90 new facilities planned by 2030, while, quantum technologies and AI have been identified as strategically important technologies. Meeting increasing demand for such digital services requires a growing range of critical minerals and high-purity materials. The growth of these technologies will increase demand for critical minerals including copper, aluminium, rare earth elements and battery materials (such as lithium and cobalt) used in digital technology components and backup power systems. Quantum technologies also require some critical minerals that are more rarely discussed, including niobium, hafnium, bismuth, high-purity silicon and other raw materials such as helium.

CMIC is hosted by the British Geological Survey (BGS) and funded by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science & Technology (DBIST). This report highlights the value of data centres, AI and quantum computing to the UK economy and future economic growth and emphasises the importance of critical minerals in their development. The global trade routes that feed the UK with many of the necessary raw materials for cutting-edge technologies are still immature and underdeveloped, relying on exports from a small group of countries. Additionally, many critical minerals are only produced as by-products from the mining and refining of other commodities, such as copper and aluminium, so their production can be affected by the market swings for those major metals. Collectively, these factors can render vital supply chains unresponsive to demand and vulnerable to geopolitical factors.

The report highlights several ways to strengthen resilience, including international partnerships, supply chain diversification and targeted development of domestic capabilities. There are many opportunities for the UK, which should capitalise on its potential to mine, refine, purify and recycle some critical minerals. Nonetheless, international collaboration and strategic partnerships remain essential. In the future, digital technologies will face increasing competition for critical minerals from other sectors that we rely on for our energy, transportation, home and work lives, defence and health care, and we may need to prioritise how our critical mineral supplies are used. The report’s lead author, BGS Minerals geoscientist Dr Holly Elliott, believes that the need to better understand and forecast the nation’s mineral supply requirements has never been greater and is central to delivering the country’s ambitions.

“While some of the materials used in digital technologies have highly concentrated supply chains, there are also opportunities to improve resilience through innovation, international collaboration, diversification of supply and the development of specialist capabilities where the UK already has strengths.

“The UK has already invested in the development of a skilled domestic workforce and created growth zones but, to become a centre of excellence within the digital revolution, we must identify potential bottlenecks and vulnerabilities in the critical mineral supply for the decades to come, and act now.”

Dr Holly Elliott, BGS minerals geoscientist

Many of the materials required for digital technologies, such as lithium, cobalt and graphite, are experiencing significant growth in demand and intensifying competition between key sectors, including low-carbon technologies, aerospace, defence and advanced manufacturing. These are all expected to experience their own growth surges in the near future, while the wider adoption of quantum computing is currently an unknown, but likely to be a significant, factor.

Batteries sit at the heart of many of these technologies, with data centres requiring huge, grid-scale batteries to ensure an uninterruptible energy supply in the event of a disruption to mains power. The energy requirements of these facilities is considerable. Based on the findings of a recent energy demand report, a 1 GW data centre running continuously could use as much power as up to 3.2 million UK households over the course of a year. The Government estimates that the UK will need up to 6 GW of AI-capable data centre capacity by 2030, highlighting the true scale of the demand for battery raw materials.

The UK Government will increasingly face the challenge of prioritising how much of the available critical mineral supply will be directed toward the development of AI technologies and data centres while also nurturing fledgling industries such as quantum computing.

Dr Elliott says diversification will be essential to securing reliable and sustainable supplies of critical minerals.

“Whilst the UK has the potential to develop domestic supplies of certain critical minerals, it is unlikely to achieve self-reliance and cannot become a specialist in all parts of the supply chain.

“Access to global supply chains, international collaboration and strategic partnerships therefore remain vital; the opportunity best lies in collaboration and strategic partnerships to offset the risk posed by geopolitical uncertainty.”

Dr Holly Elliott

The report also highlights opportunities for the UK to build on existing strengths in semiconductor technologies, photonics, cryogenics, quantum technologies and high-purity materials. Alongside these established capabilities, opportunities will emerge to develop domestic recycling and secondary supply chains as demand for digital technologies continues to grow.

In terms of primary supply, various prospective UK projects are likely to become more economically viable with the increase in demand, such as:

• lithium resources in Cornwall
• tungsten in Devon
• graphite in Northern Ireland
• nickel, vanadium and the platinum group metals in Scotland

However, Dr Holly Elliott warns that ambition does need to be balanced against realistic understandings of how these supply chains operate.

“Geologically speaking, the Earth is not short of minerals. Scarcity is typically driven by a combination of factors, such as geopolitical access, the economic viability of extraction, and the technological constraints around our ability to refine and process them.

“History suggests that restricted supply but increasing demand creates market opportunities and that supply chains eventually catch up with demand but, in the case of minerals, this can take decades.”

Dr Holly Elliott

As such, enhanced access to global supply chains, international collaboration and strategic partnerships will be vital in the immediate future, offsetting the risk posed by geopolitical uncertainty. Over the longer term, investment that builds on the UK’s existing technological strengths and development of regions with domestic prospectivity can further strengthen the UK’s position as the demand for critical minerals intensifies.

Report recommendations

In summary the report recommendations include:

• Isotopic purification and high-purity materials: the UK can build on its strong expertise in isotopic purification to increase domestic commercial production, supporting global diversification and reducing supply risks
• Expand downstream manufacturing capabilities: broadening established industries (including cryogenics, photonics and semiconductors) from design into manufacturing could reduce the UK’s reliance on imported components
• Critical minerals and processing capacity: the UK should assess viable opportunities in the domestic critical mineral supply chain, including extraction and value-added processing where potential exists
• Quantum-enabling materials: developing domestic capabilities in non-linear materials and crystals would mitigate trade interventions and strengthen supply resilience
• Recycling and secondary supply: developing recycling and processing hubs for electronic waste components would help to establish a secondary supply of the materials for which the UK has limited domestic extraction potential
• Industrial support and enabling environment: there may be a role for targeted support mechanisms to encourage the development or expansion of domestic facilities for primary production, materials refining, isotopic purification and secondary material recovery
• Data, demand visibility and supply chain mapping: encouraging UK companies to report quantified material requirements for key technologies, such as data centres and batteries, would support improved modelling of future demand under different technology adoption and growth trajectories
• Workforce and skills development: further support for workforce development in emerging sectors such as quantum computing would help address shortages in specialist and technical roles spanning engineering, computer science and physics

The full report, ‘Mineral requirements of digital technologies: data centres, artificial intelligence and quantum computing’, is available on the CMIC website.

This research was funded by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology as part of the 2025 to 2026 work programme for CMIC.