Commission picks 46 projects
The European Commission on Friday chose 46 strategic raw material projects for faster permitting and help bidding for public and private funding. The projects are spread across 16 EU countries and cover 15 of the 17 strategic raw materials on the bloc's list, including copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, rare earths and tungsten. The Commission expects them to require around €21.1 billion ($23.7 billion) in capital investment from public and private sources. Strategic status does not automatically bring EU funding, since the Commission only "facilitates access" to it and helps developers connect with lenders. Notable projects include Zinnwald Lithium in Germany, the Skouries mine in Greece, Arctial's planned aluminium smelter in Finland and the Viscaria copper project in Sweden.
Slow progress on last year's list
The new group follows 60 projects announced last year, including 13 outside the EU in countries such as Brazil, Greenland and Kazakhstan. Progress on the earlier projects has been slow, and some have struggled to move forward. The Commission said it had already mobilised more than €2 billion ($2.24 billion) in public funding, while developers warned in August that more projects could fail without urgent funding. The bloc's 2024 Critical Raw Materials Act aims to mine 10%, process 40% and recycle 25% of its annual needs by 2030.
Trade pressure from China
Industry commissioner Stéphane Séjourné said the EU is "pulling out all the stops" to fend off a potential trade crisis with China. He warned of the risk in the near term.
We could face a crisis in the coming months.
Trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič held talks in Beijing on Friday aimed at reducing China's "unsustainable" trade surplus with the bloc, which stands at £1bn a day. Séjourné cited three projects already identified as strategic. The Carester plant near Pau in south-western France is expected to be up and running in late 2026 and produces dysprosium and terbium, which are used in magnets for electric vehicles and offshore wind turbines. He said this single project "could account for about 15% of global production of these oxides." A gallium plant in Greece is already running, and the Keliber lithium plant in Finland is operational after €150m support from the European Investment Bank.
Mines are opening, factories are being built, financing agreements are being signed, and a European value chain is emerging.
Projects in member states
Italy has five projects on the list: 9PV-UP by 9-Tech, which recycles end-of-life solar panels, Alkeemia PureGraph by Alkeemia Spa, which processes high-purity graphite for batteries, ReSuPLIR by Italrecycling & Investment Srl, which recovers platinum group metals, and REW-ITA Green Hub by OMCD Tek Hub Spa, which recycles copper, cobalt and tungsten. The fifth is CRM4Defence, a Leonardo Spa project covering Italy, Poland, France and the United Kingdom. Le Figaro reports five projects in France, while Le Monde reports six. In Portugal, the Commission selected Minerália's plan to reactivate the Borralha tungsten mine in Montalegre, which would involve underground extraction for 15 years.
In Spain, the Cobre San Rafael copper project in Touro and O Pino, Galicia, is the only Spanish copper extraction project selected, out of 46 chosen from 102 applications across 16 member states. The company says the mine would run for 16 years using a transfer mining method that restores voids as extraction advances.
- Copper exploitation of the San Rafael deposit begins
- Copper exploitation ends at the site
- Xunta de Galicia declares it a strategic industrial project
- European Commission selects it among 46 strategic projects
Environmental groups push back
Amigas de la Tierra and Ecologistas en Acción denounced the Touro project and the El Moto tungsten processing plant in Ciudad Real, calling them projects "with a broad history of irregularities and environmental and social bad practices." They say the Touro site was abandoned in 1987 without land restoration and has polluted the Ulla river basin for decades. Adriana Espinosa, natural resources lead at Amigas de la Tierra, criticised the decision.
Once again, governments are trampling on the rights of populations and ecosystems by prioritising mining projects with high environmental impact and little social value.
In Portugal, the Borralha project received a positive opinion from the Portuguese Environment Agency, but the association Povo e Natureza do Barroso has challenged the environmental impact study in court. Braga city council has raised concerns that the mine could pollute the Cávado river, which supplies the region's water.