EU launches 13 projects in third countries to diversify imports of critical minerals

Brussels – The watchword: diversification. This is the imperative that is driving the EU when it comes to the supply and processing of so-called critical raw materials: indispensable elements for the green and digital transitions, but of which the Old Continent is dramatically lacking.

According to the list drawn up by the European Commission, there are 34 critical raw materials of strategic interest to Brussels. The problem lies in the fact that their supply is highly concentrated: for example, out of the total imports of the Twenty-Seven, heavy rare earths are supplied 100 per cent by China, 99 per cent of boron comes from Turkey, and South Africa supplies 71 per cent of the platinum.

Therefore, in an attempt to mitigate the risks associated with relying on a single supplier, the twelve-star executive approved today (4 June) a list of 13 strategic projects for the extraction and processing of such raw materials to be implemented between now and the next few years in 11 third countries (Brazil, Canada, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Malawi, Norway, United Kingdom, Serbia, South Africa, Ukraine, and Zambia) and two overseas territories (Greenland and New Caledonia).

The aim is to secure the supply of some of the above materials (e.g. cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese and nickel, but also boron, copper, tungsten and some rare earths) and not to fall (too) behind in the global challenge for competitiveness, which in the 21st century is mainly played out in key sectors such as defence, aerospace, electrical mobility and renewable energy.

In the words of the Commission’s executive vice-president in charge of industry, Stéphane Séjourné, this is the “second act towards independence (of the EU, ed) in the area of critical raw materials,” which are proving to be “essential for our sovereignty in these geopolitically tense and troubled times.” We must “diversify our imports,” she stressed, noting that “no country should supply us more than 75 per cent of our annual needs.”

The Vice-President assured that the adoption of the new project list opens the door to “win-win partnerships” between the Twenty-Seven and interested third countries. The first act referred to is a similar project list of 47 projects for the extraction, processing, recycling, and substitution of strategic raw materials within the Union, adopted by the EU executive last March.

Speaking alongside Séjourné, the UK Secretary of State for Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, welcomed the deepening of the industrial partnership between London and Brussels, emphasising the UK and EU’s common interest in ever closer cooperation on strategic raw materials. Among the projects approved today is one for the extraction of tungsten (used in defence, medicine and nuclear power) near Plymouth, England.

Alongside Séjourné and Reynolds was also the Ukrainian Minister of Natural Resources, Svitlana Hrynchuk. Kyiv has received the green light from the EU executive for a graphite mining project in the Inhuletske area, central Ukraine. Hrynchuk reiterated that “Europe needs reliable, long-term supplies of critical raw materials to ensure it maintains its economic, industrial, technological, and geopolitical security“.

He also recalled that “we already have very good cooperation with the Commission and Member States in the mining sector“. In 2021, a memorandum of understanding was concluded precisely on the exploitation of the riches in the Kyiv subsoil, which, according to Séjourné, “must be implemented gradually.”

In fact, Ukraine
recently concluded another significant and equally controversial agreement on critical raw materials with the United States, after the signing seemed to have faded irretrievably following the ambush laid by Donald Trump and JD Vance on Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office at the end of February. However, the minister assured, with the special investment fund introduced by that agreement, “we will finance projects on critical raw materials together with EU member states and the Commission as well.” Meanwhile, the commitment to “implement EU rules in Ukrainian legislation, including in the mining sector,” remains firm.

Today’s is the first list of non-EU projects approved since the Critical Raw Materials Act came into force in May 2024. Based on the guidelines introduced by this regulatory framework, Brussels has set targets for the extraction, processing, and recycling of these strategic materials of 10, 40, and 25 per cent, respectively, to be achieved by 2030.

All in all, this latest building block in the aggressive continental reindustrialisation strategy sought by Ursula von der Leyen since the beginning of her second term is expected to cost around €5.5 billion as initial investment, according to Berlaymont’s estimates. Which will have to be put up by the Commission, the Member States and other financial institutions.