Europe is broadening its strategy to reduce dependence on imported critical minerals, directing investment towards processing, refining and recycling alongside conventional mining. The shift reflects growing recognition that securing mineral resources requires control over multiple stages of the industrial supply chain.
EU Strategic Projects Highlight Downstream Investment
The European Commission’s latest selection under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) illustrates the changing priorities. Of the 46 Strategic Projects selected in October, only eight focus exclusively on extraction, compared with 19 recycling projects, 11 processing projects and eight integrated projects spanning multiple stages of the value chain.
The distribution highlights the importance of infrastructure beyond the mine. Lithium deposits require conversion facilities to produce battery-grade chemicals, rare-earth ores need separation capacity to supply magnet manufacturers, and copper scrap requires appropriate metallurgical processing before it can return to industrial applications.
Germany Expands Lithium Refining and Recycling
One example is AMG’s lithium operation in Bitterfeld, Germany, designated by the European Commission as a European Lithium Refining and Recycling Hub.
AMG is engineering a plant with an annual capacity of 5,000 tonnes to process recycled lithium carbonate into technical-grade lithium hydroxide for further upgrading. The company has estimated the investment at approximately $50 million, with 20% supported by a German federal grant.
The project illustrates how downstream processing can complement primary mineral production while creating additional opportunities to recover materials from existing industrial supply chains.
Poland Combines Copper Mining and Recycling
In Poland, KGHM is advancing projects covering both primary extraction and secondary metal recovery. Its CRMA Strategic Projects include development of the Retków-Grodziszcze copper deposit and plans to convert the Legnica smelter into an integrated recycling metallurgical facility.
Combining these activities can improve supply resilience by connecting newly mined copper with recovered material. Primary production supplies fresh metal, while recycling keeps part of the existing stock in circulation and reduces the need for additional imports.
Why Europe Still Needs Primary Mining
Recycling cannot fully replace mining, particularly when demand is expanding rapidly. During periods of market growth, the volume of end-of-life products available for recovery may be insufficient to meet manufacturers’ requirements for new materials.
New mines therefore remain necessary to supply additional volumes, while recycling can help ease supply constraints as more products reach the end of their useful lives. The two approaches serve complementary roles: mining expands the available resource base, while recycling improves the use of materials already circulating in the economy.
Processing Technology Becomes a Strategic Advantage
For Europe, mineral security increasingly depends on technological capabilities and metallurgical infrastructure, not simply on the volume of resources extracted. Refineries able to process material from multiple sources can adapt to changing trade conditions. Recycling facilities can recover metals from products already present in Europe, while smelters capable of handling both primary and secondary feedstock can diversify their supply.
This broader strategy requires investment in exploration, mine engineering and mineral concentration, alongside hydrometallurgy, chemical processing, specialised furnaces, recycling technology, scrap collection and digital material-tracking systems.
Europe’s next phase of critical minerals investment will depend on how effectively these capabilities are connected. Building a resilient supply chain means linking mines with the processing, refining and recycling infrastructure needed to deliver materials to manufacturers and keep valuable resources in circulation.
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