The European Commission named 46 new strategic projects on October 9 under the Critical Raw Materials Act, covering 15 of the EU’s 17 strategic raw materials, including copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite, rare earths, magnesium and tungsten. The projects, spread across 16 member states, are expected to require around EUR 21.1 billion ($23.7 billion) in capital investment from a mix of public and private sources. Designated projects get faster permitting and help bidding for public and private funding.
Notable projects include the Zinnwald lithium project in Germany, the Skouries mine in Greece, Arctial’s planned aluminium smelter in Finland and the Viscaria copper project in Sweden, with industrial backers including Umicore, Aurubis and Leonardo. The designation is aimed at hitting the Act’s 2030 targets: 10 percent of EU annual consumption mined domestically, 40 percent processed and 25 percent recycled.
The move is an admission that the first wave has not moved fast enough. The Commission’s first list of 47 projects has seen slow progress, and developers warned in August that more projects could fail without urgent funding. The Commission says it has already mobilised more than EUR 2 billion in public funding, but the EUR 21.1 billion headline for the new wave depends mostly on private capital materialising, which is the open question.