Rare Earth Exchanges

Europe’s Push to Diversify its Rare Earth Element Mining and Processing Away from China—A Long Way to Go

Leave a Comment

Highlights

  • The EU is developing critical policies to reduce dependence on Chinese rare earth mineral supply through domestic mining and recycling efforts.
  • Currently, less than 1% of rare earth elements are recycled, with the EU targeting 25% recycling by 2030 to support green economy initiatives.
  • Advanced recycling facilities like Elemental Strategic Metals in Poland are turning battery waste into valuable materials, recovering over 90% of battery mass.

A recent news piece (opens in a new tab) from Singapore’s CAN discuss the growth in electric vehicles and the corresponding surge in demand for rare earth elements.  Enter a multimillion facility in Poland, one turning trash into treasure. The rare earth metals processing plant in Southern Poland as recycling processes become critically important to help the European Union (EU) meet ambitious targets for meeting rare earth element (REE) goals.

As the global electric vehicle market continues to gain market share, demand surges for REEs needed to build EV batteries. China currently accounts for more than two thirds of the world's rare earth mineral production, leading to concerns in Europe about over-reliance on one single market. In response, the EU is putting policies in place to boost domestic supply of these precious raw materials. CNA’s Trent Murray reports along with Rare Earth Exchanges.

Recycling processes help the EU meet ambitious targets for meeting REE targets.

MacieJ Dudzic, Board Member, Elemental Strategic Metals (opens in a new tab) extracts rare earth metals from waste, a key activity the EU announces it needs to see.

The gap between supply and demand, growing importance of battery recycling. Old batteries in this facility are crushed, separated, and placed in a smelter, then grouped by various metals and reused.  

This process prevents waste. It depends on the type of battery but according to the news outlet they can firmly assume more than 90% of the mass of waste are recovered and turned into valuable materials.

Currently less than 1% of REE are recycled and EU officials say this is not good enough. EU officials want 25% to be recycled by 2030. The REE are used for wind turbines and all sorts of projects as the move to a greener economy ensues.

Has the EU promulgated reform in REEs? Yes, the EU has a policy regarding rare earth element mining and recycling, primarily through the "Critical Raw Materials Act" (CRMA), (opens in a new tab) which aims to increase domestic mining and processing of critical raw materials, including rare earths, while also setting targets for recycling to reduce reliance on external sources, particularly China, by 2030; the goal is to mine 10% of the EU's required rare earths domestically, process 40%, and recycle 25% by that date. 

Key points about the EU's rare earth policy emphasized by Rare Earth Exchanges. The European Raw Materials Alliance, launched in 2020, aims to boost domestic mining. The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) was introduced three years later to further reduce reliance on non-European suppliers, promote recycling and streamline the approval process for new mining projects within the bloc.

A sweeping package of reform has passed for sourcing of to reduce dependency on imports. For certain critical minerals China provides up to 100% of EU Supply. To change this a sweeping package of reform passed to not just increase recycling rates, but also put shovels in the ground closer to home. With recent tension rising between Brussels and Beijing, this accelerates Europe’s effort to diversify supply.

As we cite above, the EU does have a critical rare earth supply policy now. One again that seeks 10% of rare earths to be domestically sourced in the EU tends to for 40% out of a domestic capacity and 25% should come from recycling to materially boost REE sourcing and production within the EU.

Experts not sure goals can be achieved. Given China’s existing market dominance across many rare earth mineral markets, and the potential for prices to drop leaving many Western mining ventures in perilous exposure, key moving forward are companies such as  Elemental Strategic Metals (opens in a new tab) leveraging technology, process disruption and other environmental mitigation measures to help society drive far more efficiency out of recycling of products worthy of recycling for REE.

Spread the word: