Chinese lithium must not become ‘the new Russian gas’, says EU industry chief

As it rushes to ramp up domestic production amid an intensifying global scramble for essential elements like lithium, cobalt, copper and rare earth metals, the European Commission has drawn up a list of mining and processing projects it wants to see up and running by the end of the decade.

“We do not want to replace our dependence on fossil fuels with dependence on raw materials,” Vice-president responsible for industrial strategy Stéphane Séjourné told reporters in Brussels today. “Chinese lithium will not be tomorrow’s Russian gas.”

The French commissioner was alluding to the Kremlin’s weaponisation of its stranglehold on much of Europe’s natural gas supplies in the run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and China position as the pre-eminent supplier of many essential elements, including nearly all of the rare earths imported into the EU.

Lithium – a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries – is just one of 34 raw materials the EU has identified as critical for the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy and the new digital economy, half of which Brussels has deemed to be of heightened strategic importance.

The EU list – which can be explored in an interactive map – includes industrial projects to mine or process lithium in Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Czechia and Finland. Altogether, the various projects are spread across 13 member states.

Under a Critical Raw Materials Act adopted a year ago, governments are committed to ensuring that 10% of mineral extraction, 40% of processing and 25% of recycling takes place within the EU by the end of the decade.

The Commission said the bloc would fully meet these targets in respect of lithium and cobalt if the relevant projects – selected on the basis of maturity and