The Hungarian government is launching a domestic raw mineral exploration programme, Bence Gonda, head of the Supervisory Authority for Regulatory Affairs of Hungary (SARA), told the Hungarian news site Világgazdaság.
Gonda told the site that the fact that the European Union—and Hungary within it—purchases a significant portion of the critical raw materials (CRMs) essential to its industry from abroad poses a major risk. The EU aims to significantly reduce this exposure, and the Hungarian government has already developed a programme to achieve just that.
The EU wants at least 10 per cent of its critical materials to come from domestic production and 15 per cent from recycling, and Hungary believes deposits of resources such as copper, aluminium, gallium, arsenic, and manganese could contribute to meeting these targets, Gonda stated in the interview.
He also shared that one of the most important known deposits is located near the village of Recsk, roughly 115 (72 miles) kilometres northeast of the capital city of Budapest by road. The site is regarded as strategically valuable due to the presence of copper, zinc, lead, silver, molybdenum, and rhenium.
However, he added, developing modern mining operations is a lengthy and capital-intensive process, often taking 10 to 15 years and requiring investment worth tens of billions of forints. For now, the Hungarian state is funding preliminary exploration work itself while preparing the projects so they may later attract private investors.
The initiative will also examine so-called secondary sources of raw materials, including mining waste and industrial by-products such as red mud.
At the same time, Hungary remains heavily dependent on imports for many critical resources. In the case of certain materials, including heavy rare earth elements, the country relies entirely on foreign suppliers, primarily China and Türkiye, Gonda said.
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