Two Horizon Europe projects, RESQTOOL and BLOOM, joined forces to organise a clustering workshop held back-to-back with the Euro PM2025 European Powder Metallurgy Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, in September 2025.
The workshop aimed to discuss strategies to mitigate scarcity risks for Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) and promote the Green Transition, taking into account the various policies and strategies currently being implemented across different geopolitical regions, addressing both primary and secondary materials.
Roundtable Summary – CRM Act and 2030: where are we?
Following scenario keynote presentations focusing on the US, the UK and the EU, and presentations from Horizon projects contributing inter alia to the redesign of European mineral value chains to meet 2030 targets set out under the CRM Act adopted in May 2024, all participants engaged in a wide roundtable discussion of these ambitious goals, what progress has been made towards their realization and how to overcome remaining hurdles. The roundtable benefited from a great diversity of perspectives, with participants representing industry, science and research, policy and investment, from the US, the UK including Northern Ireland, and EU Member States including Austria, Greece, Norway, Portugal and France. Some common concerns and recommendations emerged from this lively and insightful discussion.
The Time Factor — Mining and minerals are affected by long-term legacy impacts, very current requirements for clean industrialization and diverging views on the future of European regions and localities. Balancing global or regional climate and security imperatives, which drive significant mineral demand, with local perception of impacts and benefits, which can foster deep opposition if not addressed early and holistically, is an enduring dilemma around natural resources operations. Although this is the case for other sectors characterized by substantial land and resource use, few face positions as stark as those concerning mining and mineral operations. Notably, legacy of historical operations can have a variety of effects, in some cases driving fear or rejection, in others deeply embedding itself in communities’ identity and vision for the future.
Striking examples were discussed, including:
- Cornwall, a historical mining district in the UK, where redevelopment of mineral operations for the first time in decades is welcomed by communities in large part because of early engagement by companies and authorities, focusing on quality employment opportunities and long-term community benefit creation;
- Austria, where social rejection of lithium projects in Carinthia, despite an already significant industrial footprint in the relevant locality, can only be overcome through more engagement, information and consultation;
- Slovenia, specifically the Idrija district which hosted the second largest mercury mine in the world conducted a very forward-looking and successful rehabilitation programme with the establishment of a protected geopark, leading to somewhat paradoxical yet firm opposition to redevelopment of mineral operations in the area.
In the Eye of the Beholder – Perception of mining and minerals deeply affects growth drivers for the sector, including talent:
- Greece has seen acute labour shortages due in part to younger generations’ lack of interest in the sector and more generally to the retreat of STEM disciplines;
- This was echoed for the US, with strong attachment of workers to sectors perceived more positively also impacting transferability of skills, despite clear technical overlaps (for example among “energy”-sector workers)
- As a counterpoint, interesting examples of increased integration of social sciences to mining and minerals operations, to optimize stakeholder engagement in Norway, demonstrate the wide breadth of expertise needed in the sector but also the necessity to communicate scientific information effectively to build trust: improving storytelling has become a key pillar of the sector’s strategic positioning.
Cost of (Un)Certainty – The cost of resilience is a key issue in the context of an economy-wide shift from “just in time” to “just in case” over the last few years – affecting industrial operations but also the policy perspective on strategic autonomy: balancing this with the normal market expectation of returns, in a context of increasing volatility, is another major dilemma. The high level of risk associated with mining and minerals does not match the risk appetite of most of the finance market, particularly in Europe; depending on private sector funding puts European ambitions at risk, when systemic rivals are actively pursuing strategies to keep and use their dominant position. Lower pricing, interventionist policies, market access measures are among the tools deployed against Western security of supply, requiring a coordinated response to level the playing field, integrating:
- a much clearer definition of priorities – in this the narrative shifts are striking, from transition to security in policy and from sustainability to resilience in the mining and metals space, yet not necessarily reflected in societal expectations: security is still often taken for granted;
- mobilization of a shared toolbox – from classic incentives to more innovative models based on local shareholding, to the application of standards and favourable procurement practices, the options must be assessed and implemented more efficiently; and
- astute public funding to derisk investment.
Connecting the Dots – The long-term implications of these tensions and shifts on the mining and minerals sector remain unclear – this is an essentially global sector, which continues to strive for improved sustainability: notably, regulatory and financing imperatives of environmental, social and governance performance are not receding, despite some political discourse otherwise. The notion of “standards-based markets” raised by the G7 in their June 2025 Critical Minerals Action Plan presents an opportunity to bring together and balance the many imperatives and uncertainties facing the sector: more coordination among like-minded partners is needed, including among Europeans where national views continue to hinder effectively tackling complex, global problems.
Conclusions
Event summary: Latitude Five