EU launches plan to secure supplies of 17 strategic raw materials
The EU’s dependence on countries like China for key raw materials for sectors such as the automotive, renewable energy, and defense industries is forcing Brussels to seek autonomy in a volatile geopolitical environment
The European Commission is finalizing the presentation of its first strategic projects to boost the mining of critical materials in the EU. In a volatile geopolitical environment, Europe’s monumental dependence on countries like China for essential raw materials poses a high risk that Brussels wants to control. The EU executive is thus seeking to increase long-term autonomy in the extraction and processing of essential minerals for sectors such as the automotive industry, renewable energy, and defense. In the short and medium term, it hopes to build up reserves to withstand requirements.
Strategic minerals and key raw materials
The European Critical Raw Materials Act focuses on 17 "strategic" minerals or elements: bauxite (key to aluminum production), bismuth, boron, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, graphite, nickel, platinum, silicon, titanium, tungsten, and rare earth elements (which in turn include 17 chemical elements that, as their name suggests, are difficult to access or exploit but are also essential for several sectors).
Also, there are more than 30 "fundamental" raw materials: a list that, in addition to all the previous minerals, includes antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, coking coal, feldspar, fluorite, hafnium, helium, niobium, phosphorite, phosphorus, scandium, strontium, tantalum, and vanadium.
