World powers are scrambling to get ahead in the race for the minerals needed to produce new technologies such as microchips, solar panels and electric cars.
US President Donald Trump has invoked wartime powers to boost American production, and has contemplated the use of economic, military and diplomatic force to gain access to Canada, Greenland and Ukraine’s mineral wealth.
China is using its near-monopoly of the minerals refining market to get the upper hand over its geopolitical rivals.
In this new battlefield among world powers, where does the European Union stand?
According to the EU executive, EU demand for some elements is set to sky-rocket over the coming decade. Its lithium needs, for example, essential to produce batteries for electric vehicles, will increase twelve-fold by 2030 and a staggering twenty-one-fold by 2050.
The EU’s heavy reliance on single third countries for some materials make it vulnerable. For example, it depends on China for 100% of its heavy rare earth elements (REE), Turkey for 99% of its boron supply, and South Africa for 71% of platinum.
China has already curbed the exports of some minerals to the EU, including those critical for a range of sectors from aerospace to semiconductors.
What is the Critical Raw Materials Act?
The bloc is betting on its Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) – legislation adopted in March last year – to avoid disruptions to its mineral supply chains.
It aims to reduce vulnerabilities by exploiting more minerals on European soil, while pursuing partnerships with “like-minded” resource-rich partners – 14 deals have already been signed, including with Serbia, Australia, Greenland, Chile and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Act lists 34 materials the bloc deems “critical”, of which 17 are prioritised as “strategic”, including lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements.
It also sets ambitious targets for the EU to extract 10%, process 40% and recycle 25% of its annual consumption of strategic raw materials by 2030.
“Recycling above-the-ground raw materials, the urban mine, it is an attractive avenue for Europe,” Edoardo Righetti, a researcher for think tank CEPs explained, “because we do have relatively limited extraction capacity, extraction potential.”
“But for most of these materials, recycling rates are still relatively low. We do not have enough technologies that have reached the end of life yet,” he added. “There are also other more structural issues, including the cost of recycling, underdeveloped collection systems or inefficient collection systems.”
The EU executive is trying to overcome barriers by reducing administrative burdens on companies, for example by providing access to finance and establishing shorter permitting timeframes of 27 months for extraction permits and 15 months for processing and recycling permits.
Could local socio-environmental concerns hold projects back?
The Commission recently selected 47 so-called ‘strategic’ projects across 13 member states, the first in a broader pool of projects to mine, refine and recycle more raw materials domestically.
The goal, the executive says, is to ensure a “secure and sustainable” supply of these critical materials by maximising Europe’s own resources.
Yet, rural communities across Europe could mount challenges.
Plans to mine for lithium in Portugal have already sparked strong resistance, from both residents and environmental NGOs. They cite potential environmental damage and disruption to the lives of those living in affected communities.
The same resistance has come to the fore in Serbia, a EU candidate country, where protests erupted last summer amid plans to open Europe’s largest lithium mining operation in the fertile Jadar valley, announced just weeks after the EU clinched a raw materials deal with the Serbian government.
Is the EU at risk of falling behind in the race?
The rules of the game are also shifting, as Donald Trump takes on an increasingly aggressive approach to the mineral race.
The US President has aggressively demanded access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth in return for Washington’s military support, threatened to annex neighbouring, resource-rich Canada and wants to “buy” Greenland to seize control of its commodities.
“The EU has a Memorandum of Understanding (on raw materials) signed with Ukraine, but at the same time the Trump administration has been pushing Ukraine to sign a deal in exchange for continued military support – or in repayment for military support to date as the White House would have it – where they want access, essentially open access to all of Ukraine’s mineral wealth and Ukraine is another of the global powerhouses of mineral resources,” Robert Hodgson, Euronews’ senior energy and environment reporter, explains.
He adds that similar moral conundrums arise when the EU signs similar deals with conflict-affected areas where the proceeds from mineral trade are used to finance armed groups, fuelling human rights abuses.
“Rwanda has come into focus recently because the Rwandan military has been supporting rebel groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,” he said. “And there’s been credible reports from the UN and NGOs that minerals are being smuggled across the border into Rwanda and then exported to Europe – known as conflict minerals.”
The EU executive said in February its raw materials deal with Rwanda was “under review” after Rwandan-backed M23 rebels seized control of eastern DRC territory, prompting international condemnation.
Watch the full episode in the video above.
Journalist: Mared Gwyn Jones
Content production: Pilar Montero López
Video production: Zacharia Vigneron
Graphics: Loredana Dumitru
Editorial coordination: Ana Lázaro Bosch and Jeremy Fleming-Jones
