Winning over public key to EU's mineral supply push, says industry

Antimony Resources

15/05/2024 16:46

By Philip Blenkinsop
       BRUSSELS, May 15 (Reuters) - Europe's efforts to ensure
supplies of critical minerals needed  for its green and digital
transitions and to reduce its reliance on China are struggling
to gain public acceptance, leading industry officials said on
Wednesday.
    The EU Critical Raw Materials Act, due to enter force next
week, sets targets for the bloc to mine, recycle and process
minerals including lithium and copper by 2030.
    It also sets timeframes for strategic projects to secure
permits, but it will not fall to 27 months for a mine from the
current 15-year norm without winning over a sceptical public.
    Bernd Schaefer, the CEO of EIT RawMaterials, an EU-funded
group leading a sector alliance, said in an interview that
permitting for mining and recycling were a challenge.
    "This is still the major concern, together with the social
licence to operate, which is absolutely necessary to get the
permit," he said on the sidelines of a conference in Brussels.
    Schaefer said the key to social acceptance was active
engagement with local communities and pro-active communicating,
citing the Nordics as examples of where this had tended to work.
    One of the greatest battles has come over Rio Tinto's
 RIO.L   RIO.AX  planned $2.4 billion Jadar lithium project in
EU candidate country Serbia, which revoked licences in January
2022 after massive environmental protests before a general
election.
    Chad Blewitt, Rio Tinto's managing director of the project,
said the company was waiting out another election cycle,
including local elections on June 2, for its mine that could
produce enough lithium for one million electric vehicles
batteries per year.
    The company, he said, was fighting "a lot of
disinformation", such as that the mine will be opencast and
pollute the water supply. In fact, it will be underground and
Rio Tinto says the waste will end up as brick-like blocks that
could be used in road construction, rather than sit in a
tailings dam that has the potential to collapse.
    Blewitt said Rio Tinto had initially thought people would
not believe more outlandish claims on social media and had come
to understand that projects needed more stakeholder engagement
and communication at an earlier stage. 

 (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop
Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((philip.blenkinsop@thomsonreuters.com; +32 2 585 2869:
@reutersPhilB;))