The EU wants to achieve the seemingly impossible by ending its dependence on China and other countries for critical raw materials like lithium, cobalt and rare earths. It hopes to mine record quantities from European soil — but is it a realistic aim?
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00:00Lithium, cobalt and rare earths are the oil and gas of the future.
00:05Not only China, but also the US, the EU and the rest of the world now understands this.
00:11The EU wants to achieve the seemingly impossible and in record time.
00:16It wants to become independent of China, make up for the last several decades of raw material
00:21dependence, not antagonize the local population with drilling and mining, and at the same
00:27time mine record quantities of new raw materials from European soil.
00:32But does the EU really have a chance of achieving raw material independence, and can it meet
00:37its ambitious sustainability goals?
00:41As a united Europe, we have to try to make ourselves more independent, i.e. to reduce
00:47our dependency on China in particular, but also on other countries when it comes to individual
00:52raw materials.
00:54And that's why the EU has now decided, for example, with the Critical Raw Materials Act,
01:01which is effectively a European raw materials law, to again invest in its own capacities,
01:07its own mining, its own processing and its own recycling.
01:10Lithium, rare earths, graphite and other critical raw materials are essential for high-tech
01:26industries.
01:27Geologically, it's interesting that we now have many of the raw materials we need for
01:35the transformation in Europe.
01:38It's just that quite a lot has been outsourced to other countries in recent decades.
01:46That is set to change in the coming decades.
01:49Battery and processing factories are springing up in many parts of the EU, and companies
01:54and start-ups are working on building raw material loops for the future.
01:59New mining is being planned.
02:01Some experts are even talking about a new mining era.
02:05One example is the Rio Tinto mine in Andalusia, in the south of Spain.
02:10After environmental disasters and economic decline, Andalusia's mines are now suddenly
02:15in the spotlight.
02:18Everything stood still here for many years because copper was too cheap.
02:23Now copper prices are up again, and it's worth the enormous effort to mill and dissolve just
02:280.38% copper from the rock.
02:34More soil is a treasure for Andalusia and the European energy transition.
02:40The resource-rich region of Andalusia could play a decisive role in the targeted 10% of
02:45strategically important raw materials that are to come from the EU in the future.
02:54Many projects here qualify for the EU law, partly because 17 of the 30 critical minerals
03:00are located in Andalusia.
03:03That's why there will be new mines, but they are unlikely to create large craters in the
03:08Andalusian soil.
03:09A copper mine just 20 kilometers from Seville shows how the sector is changing.
03:15Everything is in place here for further underground mining in the future.
03:19There's still plenty of copper deep in the ground.
03:23Of course an underground mine is less conspicuous.
03:26We believe that this is the most sensible, profitable and sustainable way.
03:35When the mine starts operating underground again, it will no longer just be copper.
03:40The company has developed a chemical process that extracts even more from the rock, namely
03:45zinc, lead and silver.
03:48The company also is using the pilot plant to extract cobalt from the rock with the help
03:53of bacteria.
03:55Cobalt is a vital element for e-mobility.
03:58And something is also happening in the EU when it comes to refining raw materials.
04:03In order to make progress in battery production, raw materials such as lithium are crucial.
04:09But in order to obtain battery-grade materials, the raw material has to be chemically processed.
04:18A chemical company based in Frankfurt, Germany has been building up expertise in these refining
04:23steps for five years in order to understand each individual step precisely and later
04:30be able to control them.
04:32They're still putting the finishing touches on what could be the largest lithium refinery
04:36in Europe.
04:37Initially the plan was to produce 20,000 tons of lithium hydroxide per year.
04:43But since the price of lithium products has collapsed, investments are now difficult.
04:49The German state of Saxony-Anhalt is very cautious in putting money into lithium projects
04:56at this point.
04:59Because with the current price level, it's very hard to make an investment case, actually.
05:07But AMG received 5.5 million euros from the German state of Saxony-Anhalt for the plant
05:12there.
05:13And some European governments want to provide further funding for the development of their
05:18own raw materials infrastructure.
05:20The first contracts have already been signed with customers throughout Europe.
05:25And construction is also underway in northeastern Europe.
05:28The first plant for European production of what are called permanent magnets for EV motors
05:33is currently being built in Narwa, Estonia.
05:37Such magnets are indispensable for electric motors, wind turbines and other clean energy
05:43technologies that the EU is increasingly relying on.
05:47But here, too, there is a major challenge.
05:50So today, about 90% of all rare earth magnetics are manufactured in China.
05:55That's a real challenge.
05:56It's a real challenge for our global OEMs.
05:58It's a real challenge for our customers.
06:00It's a real challenge for all of the global economies because of the size and impact of
06:03the automotive industry.
06:05So once you acknowledge that you can't have that type of concentration in any one single
06:09jurisdiction, you have to think through the importance of how do you diversify.
06:16This diversification has already begun in the hundred-year-old mines of the former oil
06:21shell factory in Silmet, not far from the construction site in Narwa.
06:26Rare earth metals are processed here in a complex multi-stage process.
06:31These in turn are used for the production of highly sought-after permanent magnets in
06:35the electrical industry.
06:38In a few years' time, permanent magnets for 2.5 million cars are to be produced here in
06:44Narwa every year.
06:47Together with the production site for rare earths in Silmet, Europe will finally become
06:51less dependent on imports from China.
06:55So much for the plan.
06:57But what are the downsides?
06:58What price will local nature and EU residents pay for the expected turbo mining in the coming
07:04decades?
07:12We mustn't forget that the population also has to be involved.
07:16Currently, for example, there's the case of Serbia.
07:20The planned lithium project of the Australian mining company Rio Tinto has been in the news.
07:27This clearly shows what can happen when the population is ignored.
07:33The project was stopped around two years ago following pressure from protests.
07:39That was because the environmental impact was deemed to be serious.
07:47And just two years later, the project has now been restarted.
07:58What is certain, however, is that the EU not only wants to become less dependent on raw
08:03materials, it also wants to create new recycling loops.
08:10We will never be completely self-sufficient when it comes to the supply of raw minerals.
08:15But we want to be less dependent and we can achieve this by producing, processing and
08:20recycling more of our own.
08:24Whether the EU is capable of involving the local population, not harming ecological systems
08:30and establishing a circular, self-sufficient economy remains to be seen.