Greater investment needed to ensure the success of Europe's CRMA

Greater investment in both technology and skills is needed in Europe to ensure the successful implementation of the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), Member of the European Parliament Hildegard Bentele has stressed.

Speaking at the MiningForum, in Berlin, Germany, on June 6, she said it was an exciting and challenging time for miners, especially for those of strategic raw materials.

“The CRMA has finally come into force and I can't wait to see it come to life,” she told delegates, adding that it was well understood that the world, and Europe, urgently needed secure access to critical raw materials.

“The demand for lithium batteries powering our electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage is set to increase by 12 times to 2030 . . . [and] demand for rare earth metals used in wind turbines and EVs is set to rise to five to six times by 2030,” she said.

She added that about ten new mines, 15 new processing plants and 15 recycling plants would be needed in Europe to meet the continent’s demand for critical minerals by 2030.

Building these mines and processing and recycling plants would require additional investment.

“We have been pushing hard . . . to significantly improve the permitting procedures in order to provide for a timely, effective, predictable investment environment, but that cannot level out the fact that, for now, there's no fresh money and the possibilities arising from the stock instruments are limited.

“Mining is a long-term commitment. And it needs investments. This is why I still believe that we need a fund at European level [to help finance that infrastructure],” Bentele said.

She encouraged European countries to seek solutions to the financing challenge at a national level, but also to align national financial tools with the overall European strategy.