Professor John Mavrogenes Co-Chairs REECON-UK to Address Global Rare Earth Challenges
Oxford, UK – June 6, 2025 — Professor John Mavrogenes, Theme 3 Leader for “Accelerating Processing” at the Centre in Critical Resources for the Future (CCRF), played a central role in co-chairing REECON-UK: Rare Earth Element Forum held at the Oxford Martin School.
Hosted in partnership with the Oxford EARTH initiative and the Oxford Martin School Programme on Rethinking Natural Resources, the sold-out one-day forum brought together leading voices from academia, government, and industry to tackle the urgent challenges surrounding rare earth elements (REE).
REEs are essential to technologies driving the global energy transition—from wind turbines and electric vehicles to advanced electronics. The forum focused on every stage of the REE supply chain: from resource discovery and extraction, through refining and magnet production, to the complex geopolitics and environmental implications of REE dependency.
Professor Mavrogenes, a Visiting Fellow at Oxford Martin School, co-chaired the event alongside Professor Jon Blundy, Director of the Oxford EARTH initiative. The program featured concise presentations, moderated panels, and open discussion with attendees, placing the UK’s REE strategy within a wider international context.
“This forum showcased how critical rare earths are to the future of sustainable technology—and how global collaboration is needed to build resilient, ethical supply chains,” said Mavrogenes.
The forum represents a growing movement to secure responsible sourcing and processing of critical minerals globally—a key mission of CCRF and Mavrogenes’ leadership in processing innovation.