The European Union has officially launched the new critical minerals section of its procurement platform, a key initiative aimed at reinforcing supply chains and reducing strategic dependence from China.
The platform is part of the bloc’s RESourceEU strategy, announced in December to develop its supply chains for rare earths and other strategic minerals used in sectors such as clean energy, digital technologies and advanced manufacturing.
Reducing reliance on dominant suppliers
The EU’s Energy and Raw Materials Platform, opened to submissions from buyers on Monday in the first phase of a multi-month process, an EU spokesperson said. The platform connects buyers with suppliers, but allows the two sides to finalise trades. The first round of connections between buyers and sellers had the focus on “immediately and soon-to-be-available rare earths, battery and defence raw materials”, the spokeperson said.
The results will be announced in September. Last year, the EU chose PriceWaterhouseCoopers and a Slovak software company to develop its 9 million euro platform, which has separate mechanisms for strategic raw materials, hydrogen, and energy products such as natural gas and biomethane.
European ambitious targets
The platform kicked off with hydrogen, which started submissions in November and announced results, on April 1, with 273 match-ups. The REsourceEU plan aims to accelerate the bloc’s Critical Raw Materials Act, passed in 2023.
The EU wants to speed up the development of its own supply chains so as not to rely on any single country for more than 65% of its demand. Under the CRMA, the bloc has set ambitious 2030 targets for domestic production of critical minerals required for its green transition – 10% of annual needs mined, 25% recycled and 40% processed domestically by the end of the decade.
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