Europe announces 47 “strategic minerals projects” including EMH, EMN and VUL
This week the EU selected 47 “strategic projects” to help the region secure access to critical minerals.
Included were three of our Portfolio companies:
- Euro Manganese (ASX:EMN) - Development stage high-purity manganese in Czech Republic
- European Metals Holdings (ASX:EMH) - Large low-grade lithium project in Czech Republic
- Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL) - Late stage lithium brine company in Germany
The selection of these projects marks a key step for Europe to implement the Critical Raw Materials Act which sets targets for 2030 including:
- Extracting 10% of EU’s annual mineral consumption
- Processing 40% of EU’s annual mineral consumption
- Recycling 25% of essential materials for EU
These projects are set to benefit from streamlined permitting (maximum 27 month permits for mining and 15 months for processing and recycling).
This will hopefully bypass regulatory bottlenecks that Europe is unfortunately known for.
We also expect further financing opportunities to be made available to these projects including public guarantees from national banks, the European Investment Bank and the EBRD.
On the days that the news was announced each of our three Investments saw a spike in trading.
For the projects that were selected, we think that it is very good news and will hopefully help take the projects through to development.
