Brussels today unveiled the list of EU projects on raw materials that will benefit from streamlined procedures as the bloc prepares to source its own materials locally and reduce its dependence on external suppliers. 

The long-awaited list and map of strategic projects under the Critical Raw Materials Act identifies 47 projects to be developed on EU territory out of 170 applications.

“Today, we have identified 47 new strategic projects that, for the first time, will help us secure our own domestic supply of raw materials,” said EU industry chief Stéphane Séjourné.

The winning mining projects will be given shorter timeframes for permitting procedures, reducing decades of administrative processes to 27 months.

However, the Commission stated that these projects must still “comply with all applicable environmental and social requirements under existing legislation”.

They will also benefit from priority status to expedite potential legal proceedings and access to financing.

For NGOs, the selection process lacked transparency and accountability.

“Civil society, Indigenous Peoples, affected local communities, and independent experts have been largely excluded from the decision-making process,” said Robin Roels, coordinator of the EU Raw Materials Coalition in a press release.

“If the EU is serious about a fair and sustainable transition, it must open up this process to genuine scrutiny and ensure that community voices are heard,” he added, noting that the evaluation criteria remained undisclosed.

The selected projects will be developed in Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Estonia, Czechia, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Poland and Romania.

While the majority will be dedicated to extraction and processing, the list includes 10 projects dedicated to recycling, most of which will be developed in Italy.

Europe’s next mines 

The Iberian Peninsula accounts for the largest share of winning projects, with four selected projects in Portugal and six in Spain, mostly for extraction and processing.  These will focus on lithium, copper, cobalt, platinum group metals, and nickel.

The Barroso Lithium project in Portugal aims to play a key role in supplying Europe’s battery value chain, with production set to start in 2027.

However, the project has attracted much opposition from the population and NGOs, while a corruption probe linked to lithium mining saw the fall of former prime minister António Costa – now president of the European Council – in 2023.

The list also features Germany’s Vulcan Energy lithium plant. The latter promises to boost Europe’s electric vehicle market, and supply carmakers such as Volkswagen, Renault and Stellantis.

Two selected projects, one in Poland and one in Sweden,  are linked to the development of rare earth elements processing for magnets.

Also in Sweden, the Talga Natural Graphite ONE project will focus on the extraction of battery-grade graphite.

In Czechia, two projects for extraction and processing were selected in Czechia, one for battery-grade lithium and another for battery-grade manganese. The latter, which could supply a quarter of Europe’s manganese needs by 2030, employs an unconventional mining process by recycling old mining waste.

In Finnish Lapland, Anglo American’s Sakatti copper and polymetallic projects were selected.

Sakatti is “expected to deliver around 100,000 tonnes of copper equivalent metal production per year from the early 2030s,” said Alison Atkinson, Anglo American’s Projects & Development Director in a press release.

Although the project is partly located in an EU-protected area, Anglo American told Euractiv that the project has already been approved under the bloc’s rules.

In Romania, meanwhile, three projects will accelerate three of its extraction processes, each dedicated to one material: magnesium, copper and graphite.

France also got its fair share of selected projects, with two dedicated to lithium extraction, four to the processing of various materials and two to recycling.

In Greece, projects were selected to develop integrated bauxite, alumina, aluminium and gallium extraction and processing.

While this list only covers EU countries, the Commission also received 46 applications for projects in third countries, but the decision has been postponed.

[DE]