The Philippines, along with eight other countries, joined the US strategic minerals initiative that aimed to strengthen the call for the responsible mining of high demand minerals used to manufacture technologies such as electric vehicles, battery storage and wind turbines.
The Energy Resource Governance Initiative (ERGI) announced in June that the US will share mining expertise with member countries to help them discover and develop their minerals such as lithium, copper, and cobalt as well as give advice on management and governance frameworks to help attract international investors.
The countries involved in the initiative are Australia, Botswana, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Zambia, and the Philippines.
Canada was previously announced to be part of the initiative but the US neighbor was not listed as a member on Thursday due to political reasons. However, officials said that the US administration “remains hopeful that Canada will join the initiative in the near future.”
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