Ci sono minerali delle terre rare anche in Europa, ma estrarli è troppo difficile a causa delle leggi dell’UE. Il cortocircuito e come viene affrontato [translation in the comments]
https://www.open.online/2025/12/14/piano-ue-terre-rare-materie-prime-critiche/
di Massimo25ore
15 commenti
The RESourceEu strategy aims to reduce imports from China and relaunch the green agenda. But in order to increase the extraction of critical raw materials from European soil, certain measures of the Green Deal need to be modified.
To relaunch the Green Deal agenda and reduce dependence on China, the European Union wants to start extracting rare earths and other critical raw materials from its own subsoil. But to do so, before setting any targets or drawing up any plans, it is forced to revise certain sustainability laws that currently hinder the opening of new mines. This contradiction was acknowledged by Jessika Roswall, European Commissioner for the Environment, who on Wednesday 3 December presented the long-awaited RESourceEU, a strategy that aims to increase the extraction of minerals considered most important for clean energy and the defence industry.
The EU’s triple strategy on critical raw materials
To date, the European Union has been almost entirely dependent on imports of critical raw materials, a label that applies to materials such as lithium, which is now used in battery production, and rare earths, a group of seventeen chemical elements used in hybrid car engines and in the magnets that power wind turbines.
To free itself from Chinese supplies, Brussels is working on three fronts: diversifying suppliers, increasing extraction on European soil and developing a recycling supply chain.
Regulatory cuts for opening new mines
The issue of opening new mines is perhaps the most complicated. ‘There are long waits and a degree of uncertainty in obtaining new permits due to differing environmental legislation. We need to review and also amend the regulatory framework,’ explained Commissioner Roswall.
The European Commission’s proposal will arrive ‘in the first half of 2026’ and will consist of speeding up environmental permits for those wishing to open a mine, starting with a revision of the Water Framework Directive, and could also include ad hoc rules for the use of hazardous chemicals in mining activities. ‘Regulatory bottlenecks need to be removed to speed up the start of production of such important projects,’ reads the RESourceEu plan presented by the European Commission.
Brussels’ “simplification shock”
The next of these simplification packages, renamed “omnibus”, should specifically concern certain environmental protection laws. “We want to simplify the procedures for issuing permits and environmental assessments for strategic projects that are of general and priority public interest. These could be electricity grids, data centres, circular economy projects,” explained Commissioner Roswall.
The path to recycling
Alongside the reopening of mines and the diversification of suppliers, Europe’s strategy focuses on recycling, ensuring that all raw materials entering the EU never leave again. The idea is to boost the metal recycling sector and limit the export of technological waste by amending certain existing rules on shipments and waste labels to make it easier for EU countries to recycle each other’s waste. Furthermore, by mid-2026, the European Commission aims to establish a European Raw Materials Centre, which will effectively become the hub of supply for all European countries.
This is an opportunity that the Italian government has already set its sights on. “The strategy on critical raw materials announced by the European Commission fully incorporates the requests made by Italy,” rejoiced the Minister for Enterprise, Adolfo Urso. ‘We are ready to take a further step forward by applying to host it in Italy.
This is a major factor.
China gives zero concern to environmental protections, or labor laws / human rights.
Extraction is only getting you half way to usable rare earths. After mining, the raw ore has to be refined, and China has a monopoly on refining. Unless EU develops domestic refining tech and capacity, EU-mined ore will end up being shipped to China for refining, as it is already happening today.
So investors will start lobby to tone down environmental, health and safety regulations for maximum profits.
The title is misleading garbage.
It’s not difficult. It’s not economically feasible because companies got used to trashing the environment and human life for profits.
We have laws and regulations for good reasons and don’t want to end up like Americans giving all kinds of diseases and cancer to residents near by a mine and plant.
If it was just environmental laws holding back REE development those would have been worked around long ago. REE as a whole are not rare to find but you need adequate density with sufficiently easy access. Not all REE are equally useful or valuable either. That is why China works so hard to maintain strong economic relations with Australia for their REE even when Australia threatens to pivot away. Refinement isn’t just dirty but is also difficult and inefficient. We know more about China’s nuclear weapons program than we do their advancements in REE refinement. It appears to be significantly cleaner and more efficient than what anyone else has but they likely developed their methods thanks to operating refinement on scales nobody else is even in the same league of.
Just going after the environmental laws feels like a distraction from every other hurdle. There are many small REE mining and refining operations but they stay small not because of environmental laws but because they tend to specialize as they aren’t able to scale up due to costs since competing with China on scale isn’t an option which means they cannot fight China in broad categories so have to focus on a few key REE, often from specific areas. REE independence doesn’t mean rolling back environmental laws but will require massive liquidity infusion long before serious results are seen.
Didnt read the article, but I don’t believe for a second its too difficult. Its probably way more expensive than buying it from china though. Probably because affected communities still want clean drinking water and pretty hefty insurance if something were to happen. Proper waste management and such cost money.
Rare earths are not actually rare. They are pretty much everywhere. But the concentrations are small so it’s a bit of a process to extract them. The reason china is now the major producer is because due to lax environmental standards the minerals were massively cheaper to produce there than in e.g. California which used to be a major source.
So in a way they are a difficult political weapon for china. Others can produce them if getting them from china gets too expensive. It’s very temporarily useful tool.
I can’t wait for Norway to start extracting REE’s only for the EU to threaten Norway with more tariffs, and moralizing about how we are profiteering. Whilst calling for strategic autonomy through regulation and regressing on climate goals.
It’s not just laws. It’s mostly NIMBYs. No one wants a carry in their city
Let me guess, before reading, that this has something to do with ‘digging them up would poison the entire continent and the refinement is even worse’.
How many people to relocate (into similar or better living conditions) and declare a certain radius in the vicinity of Kiruna a non-habitable industrial area to kick it off?
The “EU laws block extraction” framing is a bit misleading. Europe does have some rare earth deposits, but most are smaller, lower-grade, or harder to access than in places like China, so scale and cost are real constraints, not just regulation.
The bigger bottleneck isn’t mining anyway, it’s refining. Rare earth refining is extremely dirty and energy-intensive. Doing it in a dense, high-energy-cost continent like Europe while meeting environmental standards makes it much more expensive, even if it’s technically possible.
That said, the choice isn’t “copy China or give up.” Europe isn’t aiming for full self-sufficiency, but for risk reduction: some domestic mining, some refining for strategic uses, more recycling, diversified imports, and R&D into substitutes is what’s needed.
Europe will never be the cheapest producer, but limited capacity can still matter for resilience and supply security without racing to the environmental bottom.
Even before the difficult laws come the NIMBYs.
They will sue and sue and sue, and by the time you can finally build the mine decades have passed
lol, no thats not correct.
I don’t see why we would need to have this industry in Europe. The Australians are experienced in mining and have vast uninhabitable land perfect for processing facilities. It will never be cost competitive here in Europe.