Spain faces its first national mineral exploration plan since the 80s

The General Directorate of Mines and the Geological Mining Institute of Spain (IGME-CSIC) are working on the design of the National Exploration Program for Critical Raw Materials, which is required by the European Union and which, in the case of Spain, will be the first time that a plan of these characteristics has been addressed since the 80s.

As a result of the crises unleashed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the shortage of semiconductors, the European Union (EU) decided that member states should know how much of minerals critical to the ecological and technological transition they treasure in their territory in order to reduce their dependence on third countries.

In search of 34 raw materials

In 2024, the regulation on critical raw materials for the future of EU supply chains identified 34 key materials, of which 17 are considered strategic (nickel, graphite, gallium, magnesium, titanium metals, heavy and light rare earths, germanium, platinum metals, silicon metal, lithium, copper, aluminium/bauxite, cobalt, tungsten, bismuth and boron/borate). To determine these materials, the EU has relied on two criteria: their economic importance and the risks to security of supply. China currently controls 100% of the EU’s supply of rare earths and 71% of gallium’s supply; Turkey, 98% of boron; Chile, 79% of lithium, and Guinea, 63% of aluminium. In order to reduce these and other dependencies, the EU has set a target by 2030 that at least 10% of the consumption of these critical raw materials is extracted in the EU and 40% is processed here, as well as 25% comes from recycling and no third country concentrates more than 65% of a supply.

Continue reading news in EFE Verde