Greenland earmarked for brand new minerals mission as US eyes island | EUROtoday

The European Union has introduced Greenland shall be among the many nations chosen for 13 new uncooked materials tasks, that are designed to bolster its provide of essential metals and minerals.

The initiative, which incorporates nations outdoors the bloc, goals to make sure the EU stays aggressive in key sectors corresponding to power transition, defence, and aerospace.

The announcement follows China’s determination in April to impose export restrictions on uncommon earth magnets, requiring new licenses for export. This transfer has prompted European diplomats, automobile producers, and different companies to urgently search conferences with Beijing officers to keep away from potential manufacturing facility closures.

European Commissioner for business, Stephane Sejourne, acknowledged, “We must reduce our dependencies on all countries, particularly on a number of countries like China… The export bans increase our will to diversify.”

China presently controls greater than 90 per cent of the worldwide processing capability for these magnets, that are important parts in a variety of merchandise from automobiles and fighter jets to family home equipment.

Additionally, China is the first provider of many key parts for renewable power applied sciences, together with uncommon earth minerals, batteries, and photo voltaic panels. Brussels is raring to vary this dynamic to safe its provide chains.

The EU listing is a part of the implementation of the Critical Raw Material Act agreed in 2023 beneath which the bloc goals to mine 10 per cent, course of 40 per cent and recycle 25 per cent of its wants by 2030.

Ten of the brand new tasks shall be centered on supplies important for electrical automobile batteries and battery storage, together with lithium, cobalt, manganese and graphite. Two tasks for uncommon earths are situated in Malawi and South Africa.

Other tasks are situated in Britain, Canada, Greenland, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Norway, Serbia, Ukraine, Zambia, Brazil and the French territory of New Caledonia.

The British mission is to extract tungsten and those in Ukraine and Greenland shall be for graphite, with the mission in Greenland run by GreenRoc Strategic Materials GROC.L. Tungsten is vital for the defence business.

Greenland has been some extent of stress between Brussels and Washington this yr after US President Donald Trump repeatedly mentioned he desires to amass the Danish abroad territory.

US officers have mentioned a plan to tug Greenland into America’s sphere of affect with a kind of settlement referred to as COFA that the United States has used to keep up shut ties with a number of Pacific Island nations.

Under COFA, the US authorities gives important providers and in trade, the US army operates freely whereas commerce with the US is essentially duty-free.

The Serbian mission, run by main miner Rio Tinto, may produce 90 per cent of Europe’s lithium wants. However, the mission practically fell aside after the federal government revoked the miner’s licence in 2022. A Serbian courtroom restored Rio Tinto’s rights final yr. Many Serbs oppose the Jadar mission, saying its improvement will injury the atmosphere.

“With an estimated production of 58,000 tons of lithium carbonate annually, Serbia has the potential to become a key player in the electric vehicle supply chain,” Rio Tinto mentioned in an announcement.

The EU has estimated that the tasks would want an general capital funding of 5.5 billion euros ($6.3 billion) to get off the bottom. They would obtain coordinated monetary assist and purchaser curiosity from the European Commission, member states and lenders.

The new listing brings the EU’s complete variety of strategic tasks to 60. In March, the Commission introduced 47 tasks throughout the EU.