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The plan comes as the EU’s critical minerals sector has fallen behind North America as several high‑profile EU mining and metals companies have shifted focus to the US market, highlighting a significant gap in investment support between US and EU projects.Market participants gave a mixed initial response to the news, with some welcoming it and others more skeptical.
At the Resourcing Tomorrow conference in London held between Tuesday December 2 and Thursday December 4, the reception to the news was initially lukewarm, with delegates saying they needed time to process the changes. “I am not sure they know what they are doing,” a mining company source told Fastmarkets on the sidelines.
The new regulation builds upon the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) implemented in 2024, offering new investment into the sector and promoting a new coordination platform, European Raw Materials Centre, for joint procurement and stockpiling.
“With ReSourceEU, Europe is asserting its independence regarding critical raw materials,” Stéphane Séjourné, European Comission’s executive vice-president for prosperity and industrial strategy, said.
On Wednesday, Séjourné promised “at least €3 billion ($3.5 billion) in additional funding over the next 12 months to unlock projects immediately, in three priority sectors: permanent magnets, batteries and defense”.
The funding of €2 billion would be allocated through the European Investment Bank (EIB); €300 million would come from the Battery Booster programme and €600 million from Horizon Europe programme, Séjourné said.
“These changes show a more positive environment for mining compared to just twelve months before,” a trader source told Fastmarkets. The industry saw a lack of investment in the past five-six years and increased state support could change that, they added.
The EU had ramped up its commitments: previously, regulators flagged investment needs of up to €5.5 billion for the last batch of CRMA-approved projects, but did not specify the sources they would come from. “Export restrictions, state-backed overcapacities and strategic choke points are turning economic dependency into political pressure,” said Maroš Šefčovič, the EU commissioner for trade and economic security, in comments published on Thursday on the European Comission (EC) website.
Across the West, governments have been drafting and updating critical minerals policies in recent years, as they started to understand the risks of depending on single countries. More than 90% of the refining capacity for graphite and rare earths is in China, and more than 70% of cobalt, lithium and nickel refining capacity is owned by Chinese companies, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said, calling for further government support actions.
Mining industry professionals who gathered in London for the Resourcing Tomorrow conference on Tuesday outlined risks of existing supply chains for critical minerals used in the defense sector.
“The focus in the discussion around critical minerals shifted from decarbonization to defense and security,” Peter Handley, from the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and European Initiative for Energy Security, a Dutch think tank, said during a panel about defense’s mineral edge. Handley was also a prominent architect of the EU’s CRMA in a previous role at the European Commission.
Among the risks discussed on the panel were lack of transparency, lack of investment and high costs of new projects, mining experts said at a conference. But these risks could be alleviated by greater collaboration between companies and governments – via coordinated stockpiling, new investments into the sector and companies requesting government support with well-defined investment plans, Fastmarkets heard.
RESourceEU also puts forward a new stockpiling pilot scheme, set to become operational in early 2026, signaling that Europe is following a US approach accelerated recently.Over the past two years, the US has been ramping up its efforts to stockpile critical minerals, as demonstrated by requests to obtain critical minerals via its Defence Logistics Agency (DLA).
Six critical minerals-focused executive orders were published under Trump administration in the USA, that involve $5 billions for critical minerals spending and $2 billions “coming for stockpiling”, according to Adam Burstein, from the office of the Secretary of Defense in the US Government, at a panel about defense’s mineral edge.
Burstein noted the lack of transparency across critical minerals’ supply chain, driven either by apathy or intentions and a need to mobilize capital to address the issues.
Recent US actions to stockpile critical minerals has signaled the return of a critical minerals policy trend last observed in earnest during the Cold War amid heightened geopolitical tensions.
A defining feature of the EU stockpiling strategy is the government coordinating companies to aggregate demand and purchase materials together to enable collectivized offtake agreements.
At the Resourcing Tomorrow conference, several speakers also outlined the urgency of strategic stockpiling to reduce reliance on single-source suppliers. They also hinted at many of the updates shared yesterday by European Commissioners.
The Netherlands has a significant role to play, according to Dutch officials. The country plays a crucial role in the trade of critical minerals entering Europe, since Rotterdam is the biggest freight port.
“We have established a Dutch critical minerals observatory … [and] we are seeking to establish strategic stockpiling,” Allard Castlelein, special representative for the Raw Materials Strategy by the Minister of Economic Affairs and former chief executive at Port of Rotterdam, said during Resourcing Tomorrow. Castelein also flagged the necessity to develop public-private partnerships in the sector.
NATO’s role in coordinating stockpiling efforts among countries and facilitating knowledge sharing should also be recognized, according to Zoe White, head of policy, plans and partnerships of NATO.
She referred to NATO’s Defense Production Action Plan that was approved in February, which outlined the details of these actions. “There are 16 willing allies to talk about stockpiling and recycling… And we are seeking to standardize how we are talking about risk,” Zoe said. “And there is promising work ahead.”
While many seemed to agree that stockpiling could help mitigate supply chain risks, worries concerning the mid-stream of the supply chain as a chokepoint persisted.
“Europe outsourced part of the mining and processing capacity and expertise in the last decades; there was a big underinvestment in these areas,” Anne Lauenroth, deputy head of the International Cooperation, Security, Raw Materials and Space Department at the Federation of German Industries said.
“With export restrictions and the Nexperia case, this has alerted and made companies invest a lot more in their risk management and supply chain,” Lauenroth added.
In September, the Dutch government took control of chip maker Nexperia amid fears that it was losing know-how to its parent company Wingtech Technology. After that, China imposed export controls, halted shipments of Nexperia’s chips from the country and severed Nexperia’s upstream operations in Europe from the downstream in China.The Dutch government withdrew its intervention to pursue talks with the Chinese government, according to a media outlet on November 19.
Recognizing the supply chain insecurities that the Nexperia crisis revealed, several government officials at Resources Tomorrow emphasized that companies must be prepared to diversify their sources of supply of critical minerals, even if it increases costs.
“Companies need to be prepared to source from areas other than China,” according to Peter Handley. It mirrored what Šefčovič, the EU Commissioner on the Economic Security Package, laid out in his speech introducing RESourceEU. “Industry must also factor in a price premium for medium-term security. Policy action alone is not enough – businesses must play their part, too.”
Critical minerals and strategic materials play a vital role in transformative technologies including greener construction, electric vehicles, solar panels, wind panels and batteries. Get the latest price trends, insights and forecasts for the these markets.