Towards Integrated Resource Governance for Critical Minerals: Operationalizing UNFC and UNRMS for Nexus-Oriented Criticality and Midstream Readiness *H. Tulsidas1, C. Griffiths1, E. Ingvald1, O.T. Victoria1, S. Ghadi1 1Sustainable Energy Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (*Presenting author: harikrishnan.tulsidas@un.org) Abstract Accelerating demand for critical minerals has exposed structural weaknesses in fragmented governance systems that separate mineral policy, industrial planning, energy transition strategies, and sustainability frameworks. This fragmentation creates misaligned incentives, supply chain fragility, and sustainability bottlenecks, particularly in the midstream segment, which is capital-intensive, infrastructure-dependent, and central to value addition, resilience, and circularity. This paper proposes an integrated governance architecture that operationalizes the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC) and the United Nations Resource Management System (UNRMS) within a sequential decision-support workflow. UNFC provides standardized project-level information on environmental–socio-economic viability, technical feasibility, and confidence in product estimation. UNRMS embeds system-level principles of sustainability, intergenerational equity, resilience, and long-term value. Together, they link supply maturity to policy objectives across the full value chain. Two complementary tools implement this integration. The Food–Water–Energy (FWE) Nexus–oriented criticality assessment identifies minerals whose disruption could produce cascading impacts across essential systems, linking system exposure with UNFC-based supply risk. The Midstream Readiness and Value Addition Assessment (MidReVa) then evaluates whether feasible pathways exist to develop or repurpose midstream capacity, using structured indices on repurposability, enabling conditions, value addition, and location attractiveness. Applied sequentially, the workflow translates systemic risk identification into structured policy dialogue without prescribing thresholds, rankings, or go/no-go decisions. Designed as a screening-level instrument, MidReVa supports mineral strategies, industrial plans, energy transition roadmaps, and public investment sequencing. While dependent in part on expert judgement and sensitive to weighting assumptions, the tool offers a transparent, adaptable bridge between project-level data and system-level governance. The approach presented in this paper aims to advance integrated resource governance by aligning criticality assessment, midstream readiness, and sustainability objectives within a coherent operational methodology Keywords Integrated Resource Governance. Critical Minerals, Midstream Value Addition, UNFC, UNRMS, Food-Water-Energy Nexus 55
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0Mzk2