{"id":45039,"date":"2025-09-17T12:50:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T10:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/critical-raw-materials-europe-accelerates-and-galicia-demands-action\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T09:53:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T07:53:50","slug":"critical-raw-materials-europe-accelerates-and-galicia-demands-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/critical-raw-materials-europe-accelerates-and-galicia-demands-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical raw materials: Europe accelerates and Galicia demands action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The energy transition has become a race for <strong>strategic materials<\/strong>: lithium, nickel, cobalt, silicon and rare earths that make electric motors, wind turbines, electronics and storage possible. Since 2024\u20132025, the EU has made its move with a new law, strategic projects and binding diversification targets that are already reshaping the mining landscape&#8230; and opening up opportunities in Galicia. <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What has changed: new European law and 2035 review<\/h2>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) <\/strong>in force since<strong> 23 May 2024<\/strong>. Sets targets for 2030: <strong>extract \u226510%,<\/strong> <strong>process \u226540%<\/strong> and <strong>recycle \u226525%<\/strong> of annual consumption of strategic materials in the EU; in addition, do <strong>&gt;<\/strong> from a single third country at any stage. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Automotive 2035. <\/strong>The EU maintains its target of zero CO\u2082 emissions from new passenger <strong>cars and vans from 2035, <\/strong>with a review <strong>scheduled for the end of 2025<\/strong> to assess implementation (including the case of vans and possible specific categories).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The reality of supply: China continues to dominate<\/h2>\n\n<p>Although Australia and the US are increasing production, <strong>China <\/strong>retains its industrial dominance: <strong>~90% of global rare earth processing capacity<\/strong> and <strong>~69% of mining production in 2024<\/strong>, making refining and <strong>magnets a bottleneck<\/strong>. In 2025, <strong>new export controls<\/strong> and licensing delays have once again put pressure on the European industry. <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">European response: strategic projects and key deposits<\/h2>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In <strong>March 2025<\/strong>, the European Commission selected <strong>47 CRMA Strategic Projects<\/strong> in 13 EU countries (extraction, processing and recycling) to meet the 2030 targets. In June, it added <strong>13 projects outside the EU<\/strong> to diversify. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Northern Europe.<\/strong> Sweden (LKAB) has confirmed that by 2025 there will be an<strong> increase in rare earth resources<\/strong> at <strong>Per Geijer (Kiruna)<\/strong>, the largest known REE deposit in Europe. It is not yet in production, but illustrates Europe&#8217;s potential. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Galicia on the radar: projects and capabilities<\/h2>\n\n<p><strong>a) Lithium in Ourense (Doade Mine, Beariz)<\/strong><br\/>Underground project to extract pegmatites containing lithium and feldspars.<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Recognised as a European Strategic Project (CRMA)<\/strong> and in the <strong>public domain<\/strong> since July 2025 (DOG). Business planning places the <strong>start of construction in 2026<\/strong> and <strong>extraction in 2028<\/strong>, subject to authorisations. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p><strong>b) \u201cTechnological gold\u201d in Salvaterra do Mi\u00f1o<\/strong><br\/><strong>\u00c1ridos do Mendo <\/strong>recovers <strong>monazite (rare earth elements)<\/strong> and small amounts of gold from river sand using physical techniques, with an <strong>estimated production of 10\u201315 tonnes\/year<\/strong> of monazite concentrate. This is an example of local, <strong>non-invasive exploitation.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n<p><strong>c) Nickel\u2013cobalt\u2013copper in Santa Comba (Corcel)<\/strong><br\/>The <strong>Corcel <\/strong>project (Eurobattery Minerals) is processing permits to supply European batteries from Galicia; at the same time, the company is moving forward with <strong>tungsten in San Juan (A Gudi\u00f1a),<\/strong> with work set to begin in 2025, strengthening the regional metallurgical fabric.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>d) Silicon with a smaller footprint in the Galician chain<\/strong><br\/>The European pilot project <strong>SisAl <\/strong>(H2020, ~\u20ac14 million) demonstrated a way to produce <strong>silicon <\/strong>using <strong>aluminothermic reduction<\/strong> and <strong>secondary materials<\/strong>, reducing CO\u2082 emissions compared to the classic carbothermic process. In Galicia, <strong>CITMAga <\/strong>and companies such as <strong>Fundiciones Rey \/ Rey Bronze<\/strong> participated. <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Challenges: social licence, water and biodiversity<\/h2>\n\n<p>The European mining boom comes <strong>with greater environmental and social scrutiny<\/strong>. The experience of <strong>Barroso (Portugal)<\/strong>, with conditional permits in 2023 and a <strong>reprimand from the UN in 2025<\/strong> for transparency and access to information, warns that <strong>best practices and genuine public participation<\/strong> are no longer optional. Galicia is no stranger to this debate.  <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What to watch out for until 2030 (and opportunities for the Galician metal sector)<\/h2>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Permits and deadlines:<\/strong> CRMA projects are fast-tracked, but technical and environmental requirements are high; <strong>ESG traceability<\/strong> will be a competitive advantage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Processing and recycling in the EU: <\/strong>meeting the <strong>40%\/25%<\/strong> target requires magnet and <strong>battery refining<\/strong> and <strong>recycling plants<\/strong> located close to industry. Opportunity for <strong>Galicia&#8217;s metalworking ecosystem<\/strong> (machinery, engineering, maintenance). <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Geopolitical risk: <\/strong>as long as China concentrates <strong>REE processing<\/strong>, there will be volatility in prices and supply; <strong>long-term contracts<\/strong> and <strong>diversification <\/strong>will be key for manufacturers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The energy transition has become a race for strategic materials: lithium, nickel, cobalt, silicon and rare earths that make electric motors, wind turbines, electronics and storage possible. Since 2024\u20132025, the EU has made its move with a new law, strategic projects and binding diversification targets that are already reshaping the mining landscape&#8230; and opening up &#8230; <a title=\"Critical raw materials: Europe accelerates and Galicia demands action\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/critical-raw-materials-europe-accelerates-and-galicia-demands-action\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Critical raw materials: Europe accelerates and Galicia demands action\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industrial-supplies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45040,"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45039\/revisions\/45040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindtechvigo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}