European Commission picks 46 new strategic critical mineral projects

By Julia Payne

BRUSSELS, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The European Commission has chosen 46 strategic raw material projects to benefit from faster permitting and help in bidding for public and private funding, as the bloc races to diversify supply chains and reduce reliance on China, it said on Friday.

The EU, along with other major Western economies, is heavily dependent on China for critical minerals and components such as batteries and rare earths used in the defence, aerospace, automotive and renewable energy sectors.

Beijing has increasingly used those dependencies as a trade lever over the last two years, adding urgency to EU efforts to secure supplies and explore a joint stockpile of key raw materials.

Progress on the projects picked last year has been slow and some have struggled to move forward. The Commission said it had already mobilised more than €2 billion ($2.24 billion) in public funding, but developers warned in August that more projects could fail without urgent funding.

The Commission hopes prioritising projects will help the bloc meet targets set out in its 2024 Critical Raw Materials Act, under which the EU aims to mine 10%, process 40% and recycle 25% of its annual needs by 2030.

The projects are spread across 16 EU countries and cover 15 of the EU's list of 17 strategic raw materials including copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite, rare earths, magnesium and tungsten.

"The 46 new projects are expected to require around €21.1 billion ($23.7 billion) in capital investment, mobilised from a combination of public and private sources," the Commission said.

Notable projects include the Zinnwald Lithium project in Germany, the Skouries mine in Greece, Arctial's planned aluminium smelter in Finland and the Viscaria copper project in Sweden, as well as projects backed by major European industrial groups including Umicore, Aurubis and Leonardo.

Strategic projects do not automatically receive EU funding. Instead, the Commission said it "facilitates access" to EU funding and helps connect project developers with lenders.

The latest set of projects follow 60 that were announced last year, including 13 outside the EU in countries such as Brazil, Greenland and Kazakhstan.

($1 = 0.8918 euros)

(Reporting by Julia Payne. Editing by Mark Potter)