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Critical Raw Materials Act Adopted: A reflection with our partner Extracthive's CEO, Frédéric Goettmann

1. Could you please discuss the main challenges and opportunities of the European Critical Raw Materials Act from your perspective?

The adoption of the European Critical Raw Materials Act is, in itself, a major milestone for the raw materials community.

I remember, 15 years ago, when the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials was launched, speaking about raw materials was still “dirty”. For decades, the EU was convinced that globalization and the “invisible hand of the market” would enable our countries to source the raw materials our industries needed, without producing them ourselves. In the early 2010s, geopolitical tensions between China and Japan, power outages in South Africa, piracy in the strait of Malacca reminded us that free trade could not be taken for granted and that established supply routes could be disrupted, literally, from one day to the other. The EIP was thus established to help tackling this issue at EU level. The work of the EIP resulted, among others, in a tremendous increase in EU funding for raw material projects, from 180 M€ in the 7th framework program to 600 M€ in Horizon 2020. At the time, this was quite an achievement for us. But by then, none of us would have dreamed of a binding commitment at Parliament and Council level. Writing a European Regulation necessitates a balance between strengthening of competition within the internal market and the interests of member states,large industrial associations and the civil society. In this respect, the text of the European Critical Raw Materials Act makes some bold statements, which, in my view, underline the importance of the topic:

  • Strong support to exploration and mining, tackling the issue of delayed permitting processes
  • Explicit stance against deep sea mining
  • Setting of ambitious targets to: i- cover 10 % of the EU’s consumption of each strategic raw material through local primary sources, ii- cover 25 % of the EU’s consumption of each strategic raw material through recycling and iii- source less than 65 % of each strategic raw material from a single non-European country (when China, the DRC or the RSA currently make up more of 90 % supply of some of those materials)

These last statements confirm that the RELIEF consortium was right in its efforts to tackle the issue of lithium (which is included in the current list of strategic raw materials) sourcing from European industrial waste streams. Furthermore, I was very pleased to see that the Act pays particular attention to the recycling of legacy waste from extractive industries. Indeed, our screening of potential secondary sources lithium sources evidenced the importance of mining waste.

2. How does EXTRACTHIVE perceive the implications of the Critical Raw Materials Act 2024 on its operations and strategic planning?

Currently, Extracthive’s main objective within RELiEF is the development of its proprietary carbon fibre recycling process. Carbon fibres are currently not on the EU’s Critical Raw Material list. However, carbon fibre reinforced polymers can be used as substitutes for metallic alloys, especially in lightweight construction. As such, increasing the availability of carbon fibres can help lowering the demand for lithium, scandium and magnesium, which are typically employed as alloying agents for aluminium. Such aluminium alloys are found in key industries such as aircraft and ship manufacturing, the automotive sector, etc. Therefore, we expect the Raw Material Act to also impact positively our immediate business.

3. How do you expect the Act to affect your relationships with stakeholders, including government bodies, local communities, and industry partners?

Since the very beginning, Extracthive has been advocating a fast and strong development of recycling in Europe. Our reasoning was very simple:Industrial and end-of-life wastes are generated in Europe, were the industry needs the raw materials they contain. Deploying effective recycling schemes enable to keep these materials longer within the anthroposphere thus reducing the need to import such materials and fighting the depletion of natural resources. Furthermore, recycling activities can be done locally, thus reducing unemployment. For a few years, we were definitely preaching in the desert. And then we gradually noticed an increased awareness of this topic both in companies and the wider society. Today, with the endorsement of the Parliament, we can make our case even stronger.

4. As EXTRACTHIVE focuses on the material sourcing in RELiEF, what achievements can you present after 2 years of the project?

The European Critical Raw Materials Act strongly supports the internal production of secondary raw materials. In addition, the effective leaching of such mining waste, whether through an adaptation of the more traditional roast water leaching approach (tested by Extracthive) or the more advanced microwave process (developed by ULB), has demonstrated that these sources are readily available. I'm looking forward to the up-scaling phase, which is due to start this summer.

5. Looking ahead, what are EXTRACTHIVE’s long-term goals and strategies in light of the Critical Raw Materials Act 2024, and how do you envisage contributing to a more sustainable and secure resource supply chain?

The above-mentioned carbon fibre recycling project will reach industrial maturity and profitability by 2027. Extracthive needs to prepare for the time after we finished maturing this technology. Now is the time to identify, at early stage, the projects we will carry out and mature by then. For that purpose, the Critical Raw Material Act acts as a decision-making tool for selecting the raw materials or the waste streams to focus on. We already have some proofs of concept for the recovery of cobalt from zinc processing waste or the recycling of heavy rare earth from permanent magnets. But some of the elements listed on the critical materials are almost unknown to us, and feature peculiar chemistries, like boron or bismuth. And this is both inspiring and exciting.