The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) have expanded their financing cooperation to include critical raw materials and resilient supply chains, potentially opening new funding opportunities for mining and processing projects serving European and Japanese industries.
The institutions signed a five-year cooperation agreement covering projects across the European Union, Africa, Asia and neighbouring regions. The framework supports joint project identification, co-financing and the development of financing structures for critical minerals, clean energy and strategic infrastructure.
For mining and processing companies, the agreement brings together two institutions with complementary priorities. JBIC supports Japanese industrial access to overseas resources, while the EIB is strengthening its role in securing Europe’s supply of strategic raw materials. Their cooperation could help advance projects that are too capital-intensive or politically complex for individual commercial lenders, particularly mines and refineries outside Europe supplying both European and Japanese customers.
Critical Minerals in Focus
Potential areas of cooperation include lithium, nickel, graphite, copper and rare earths, materials essential to battery manufacturing, electricity networks, permanent magnets and advanced industrial technologies.
By combining their financing capabilities, the institutions could help develop funding structures for overseas projects that strengthen supply chains for strategic industries. The agreement does not constitute a new mining-finance commitment. No specific mining company, refinery or processing facility has been allocated a loan, guarantee or equity investment under the new framework.
The institutions said their previous cooperation had involved projects associated with approximately €2.5 billion in EIB financing. This figure relates to historical transactions and should not be interpreted as funding committed under the expanded critical-minerals arrangement. Instead, the agreement establishes an institutional platform for identifying, assessing and potentially financing future projects.
From Strategic Partnerships to Bankable Projects
The distinction between cooperation agreements and committed financing is important as European raw-material policy shifts from identifying strategic projects toward securing the capital needed to bring them into operation. Institutional partnerships can improve access to lenders, policymakers and potential co-investors, but they do not automatically resolve financing gaps or guarantee project development.
The next important step will be the selection of specific mining and processing projects, followed by the announcement of concrete financing instruments, such as committed loans, guarantees or other forms of capital support.
For European industry, cooperation with JBIC could broaden the pool of public-sector financing available for overseas critical-mineral projects while strengthening access to resources required for industrial production and the energy transition. Ultimately, the agreement’s significance will depend on whether the two institutions convert their expanded cooperation into committed project finance and operational supply-chain capacity.
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