EU selects 46 critical mineral projects to reduce reliance on China
The European Commission has designated 46 critical raw-material projects across 16 EU countries for accelerated permitting and improved access to public and private finance. Chosen from more than 170 applications, they cover mining, processing, recycling and material substitution for the defense, automotive, clean-technology and wider technology industries.
Lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite feature heavily because of their importance to electric vehicles and grid batteries, alongside copper and aluminum for electrification. The projects cover 15 of the 17 minerals classified as strategic under the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act. By 2030, the bloc wants domestic production to supply at least 10 percent of its needs, processing to cover 40 percent and recycling 25 percent, while limiting dependence on any single non-EU country to 65 percent at each processing stage.
Industry chief Stéphane Séjourné said the projects selected in 2025 and 2026 could fully meet EU extraction targets for lithium, nickel, rare earths, magnesium and tungsten, as well as processing targets for lithium and rare earths and recycling targets for lithium, cobalt and rare earths. Strategic status sets permitting deadlines of 27 months for mines and 15 months for processing or recycling facilities. However, most projects in the first batch announced in March 2025 are behind schedule, underlining the difficulty of reducing reliance on China despite renewed urgency following its October 2025 rare-earth export restrictions.
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