The EU has recently selected 13 overseas strategic raw material projects as a key initiative under its plan to secure critical mineral supply chains.
For these 13 newly added overseas projects, the EU expects a total capital investment of 5.5 billion euros (approximately 45.05 billion yuan).
Specifically, the new projects span 13 countries: Canada, Greenland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Serbia, Ukraine, Zambia, New Caledonia, Brazil, Madagascar, Malawi, South Africa, and the UK.
Battery Network noted that among the 13 strategic projects, 10 involve strategic raw materials essential for EVs, batteries, and battery energy storage systems, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite. The Dumont nickel sulphide ore project in Canada and the Jadar lithium mine project in Serbia by mining giant Rio Tinto are among them.
Additionally, two strategic projects involve the extraction of rare earth elements. The EU plans to enhance its rare earth supply chain integration capabilities by linking these two overseas projects with three rare earth processing projects within the EU.
China strengthened export controls on rare earth magnets in April, and the EU is seeking to reduce its reliance on rare earths from specific countries (such as China), achieve diversified supply of strategic raw materials, and enhance supply chain resilience.
Data shows that in March this year, the EU announced 47 domestic mining projects aimed at boosting the production capacity of strategic raw materials. These 47 strategic projects are expected to require a total investment of 22.5 billion euros (184.35 billion yuan), aiming to strengthen the local extraction, processing, and recycling of 14 out of 17 materials crucial for energy transition and security.
The 47 selected domestic mining projects cover 13 EU member states, including Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Poland, and Romania.
Among them, multiple projects focus on lithium (22 projects), nickel (12 projects), cobalt (10 projects), manganese (7 projects), and graphite (11 projects). Some projects involve multiple materials, which will greatly promote the development of the EU's battery raw material value chain.
With the addition of these 13 newly added overseas projects, the EU's global strategic raw material project network expands to 60, with an expected total startup capital of 28 billion euros (approximately 229.4 billion yuan). The EU will coordinate financing through member states and financial institutions to facilitate their early implementation.
Through these 60 strategic projects at home and abroad, the EU is expected to enhance its industrial competitiveness, particularly in industries such as EVs, renewable energy, defense, and aerospace. These projects represent the initial outcomes of the implementation of the Critical Raw Materials Act, which came into effect in May 2024.
The Act aims to ensure that by 2030, the extraction, processing, and recycling of strategic raw materials in Europe will meet 10%, 40%, and 25% of the EU's needs, respectively.
In May 2024, the EU issued a call for proposals for strategic projects, followed by the adoption of a decision on the list of the EU's first batch of strategic projects for 2025 on March 25, 2025.
Stéphane Séjourné, Vice-President of the European Commission, emphasized that Europe currently relies heavily on third-party countries for the supply of critical raw materials and must address this challenge by increasing domestic production, expanding external supply channels, and establishing reserves. The selected projects are crucial for the EU to achieve self-sufficiency in raw materials, marking a key step towards European industrial sovereignty.
Industry analysts have noted that the EU is aiming to establish a secure, sustainable, and competitive domestic battery industry chain through the investment in strategic raw material projects and robust regulations (particularly the new Battery Regulation and the Critical Raw Materials Act), in order to support the clean energy transition (especially for EVs and energy storage systems), reduce reliance on Asian suppliers, and seek greater influence in global resource negotiations in the future. However, in this process, the EU will also face challenges in balancing its own interests with the development needs of partner countries, as well as addressing geopolitical and environmental governance issues. Meanwhile, in the short term, the EU will remain highly dependent on imports of critical raw materials.
Furthermore, according to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Energy Technology Perspectives 2024 released earlier, since 2017, developing a domestic lithium-ion battery industry in the EU to reduce reliance on imports has been a key objective of the European Commission and some national governments.
Although Europe has yet to form a competitive battery industry, the surge in investment has led to a significant increase in EU production, from 2 GWh in 2019 to over 60 GWh in 2023. As of the end of June 2024, new capacity has exceeded 500 GWh, with an estimated average annual investment of $8.5 billion from 2025 to 2030.
Nevertheless, signs of a slowdown in the development of battery projects have begun to emerge in the EU. The EU battery industry is facing intense competitive pressure from China and the US, not only due to its higher production costs but also because Chinese battery manufacturing giants, including CATL and BYD, are rapidly innovating to seize the commanding heights in the competition for next-generation lithium-ion battery technology.
