On Tuesday, March 25, 2025, the European Commission unveiled a list of 47 strategic projects aimed at exploiting rare earths and critical metals. The objective is to free itself from foreign dependence for these materials, which are essential to the functioning of its industry.
Twenty-five of these projects will involve opening mines, while the others will be processing and recycling sites. Located in 13 European Union countries, 31 of the 47 selected projects will be devoted to lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite, five particularly strategic materials, especially for electric vehicle batteries and steel industry. This policy could lead to the old continent becoming completely self-sufficient in lithium within 5 years.
Europe has set itself the target of having at least 10% of strategic materials extracted from its territory, 40% processed and 25% recycled by 2030. Time is therefore running out, and the selected projects are expected to start quickly. The process of obtaining extraction permits should be accelerated, as should the process of obtaining processing and recycling authorizations.
In response to the concerns expressed by European associations and NGOs, European Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné acknowledged the need to “work on a policy of social acceptability”. However, he reiterated that “decarbonization is not possible without gallium to build solar panels, without copper to transport electricity. There can be no defense industry without rare earths (…) and for which we are 100% dependent on refined Chinese materials”.
The 47 projects are just the beginning. A second list is expected to be published soon.
