EU calls on European countries to develop their own industry extraction and processing rare earth metals to get rid of the need to buy these materials from China. Metals are needed for the production of important elements of electrocars, wind turbines and mobile phones. The organization decided to allocate 1.7 billion euros (two billion dollars) on the development of the industry (two billion dollars), Bloomberg writes.
EU will ingest 14 promising projects on the territory of the block – from the extraction of minerals before the production of magnets and their recycling, is indicated in terms of the European Commodity Alliance (ERMA). According to the Alliance, the support of the emerging industry will help Europe to become independent of cheaper Chinese products. Suppliers from China provide 90 percent of the demand for magnets for electromotive engines produced from rare-earth metals, however, according to the EU, have low labor and environmental standards. “In-depth analysis of critical supply chains and key technologies conducted by the Commission revealed a high level of EU dependence on foreign resources necessary to go to” green “and digital technologies,” said EFRRI Breton authorized on the internal market affairs. – “The EU depends on other countries – mainly from China – in the import of permanent magnets, as well as rare earth materials, of which they are made.”
The need for rare-earth metals is due to the growing demand from large European companies, such as Volkswagen and Stellantis autoconcens and manufacturer of wind generators Vestas Wind Systems. In the future, China is expected to spend most of its reserves of the necessary metals, which will deprive the EU supply and will threaten the plans for combating climate change. “The EU committed the obligation to become climate neutral by 2050. The volumes of raw materials needed to facilitate this energy transition are huge, and Europe urgently needs to provide its deliveries,” the head of ERMA Bernd Schaefer.
The EU intends to satisfy 20 percent of domestic demand at the expense of local suppliers. Projects that will spend two million dollars have a wide range of profiles – from mining of minerals in Sweden and Finland to separation of rare-earth elements in Poland and the production of magnets in Slovenia. In addition to establishing supplies within Europe, almost from scratch, states should help industry establish a strategic partnership with countries having a large stock of rare earth metals, indicated in ERMA document.
EU residents quickly switch to electrocars. In 2020, Europeans bought over a million electric vehicles. By January 2021, the total sales increased by 198 percent in 11 months compared to the same period of the previous year.