The mining industry in Europe: in Dossier No. 51 Susanna Lukacs explains how the European Union, in order to get away from dependence on China, has passed new legislation on strategic minerals. It reduces red tape obstacles at a time when several deposits are being discovered in Europe.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • Europe needs to reinvent itself and focus on economic growth. At the moment its dependency on China and the Ukrainian-Russian war are weakening the EU’s economy.
  • China’s encroaching predominance of the battery and rare earth minerals production is detrimental to Europe.
  • Europe’s governments are shifting towards reinvigorating the mining sector that has been stagnating for multiple decades.
  • The European Union’s critical-minerals legislation will streamline mine approvals across the bloc with environmental approval review times shortened to two years maximum.
  • The regulation stipulates it would diversify the Union’s imports of strategic raw materials ensuring that by 2030, the Union’s annual consumption of each raw material can be dependent on imports from multiple third countries.
  • New sources of critical raw materials are being discovered across Europe. Cutting the red tape thanks to the CRM Act may very well change the industry for the better.

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Dossier 51 - Europe's mining renaissance

susanna lukacs
International Fellow at Tholos Foundation

Researcher based in Washington, D.C. International Fellow of Tholos Foundation, where she works on international trade and industrial property.