The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a financing facility to strengthen critical minerals supply chains across Asia and the Pacific as demand rises for inputs used in clean energy, batteries, electric vehicles and digital technologies. The initiative seeks to help countries move beyond raw material extraction and build capacity in processing, manufacturing and recycling.

At the bank's 59th Annual Meeting ADB President Masato Kanda said that critical minerals would shape the next industrial era and that the region should aim to capture the jobs, technology and value these materials provide rather than serve only as a source of raw materials. He described the facility as addressing urgency and fairness by building responsible supply chains so developing member countries can compete in advanced manufacturing and create opportunities at home.

The Critical Minerals to Manufacturing Financing Partnership Facility will support project preparation, policy reforms and investment across the value chain and will include both a grant window and a catalytic finance window. The grant component will fund early stage activities such as feasibility studies, environmental and social assessments, technical assistance and knowledge sharing. Japan has committed 20 mn dollars to the grant window while the United Kingdom has pledged one point six mn dollars.

The catalytic finance window is designed to mobilise cofinancing and to share risks with other partners, and Korea Eximbank and the Korean Trade Insurance Corporation, also known as K-SURE, have each signed 500 mn dollars memorandums as the facility's first partners. The programme builds on ADB's 2025 strategy to support responsible and sustainable minerals value chains and the bank is already involved in projects including battery manufacturing and recycling in India, geological data mapping in Mongolia and AI driven metals production in Uzbekistan. All projects under the facility will be subject to ADB's environmental and social safeguards, due diligence and impact assessments and the initiative aims to support job creation, strengthen industrial capacity and meet growing demand for clean energy and digital technologies across the region.