On 16 March 2023, the European Commission published the proposed draft regulation on critical and strategic raw materials for the EU economy. The document also disclosed a new and updated list of critical raw materials (CRM).

Critical raw materials are key for economic growth, finding extensive use in the production chains of many goods used in every-day life, high-tech industries and infrastructure components that enable the energy transition.

In order to facilitate the identification of the elements, the reliable and unlimited access to which is key for the EU economy and that involve a high risk of supply issues, the European Commission is creating a list of critical raw materials. The newest list was published alongside the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials.

The document should help to develop research and innovation activities, negotiate trade agreements, and implement new projects on CRM reconnaissance and exploitation. The Regulation establishes clear levels of production, processing and recycling for internal markets and implies diversification of critical raw materials’ supplies.

Initially, the CRM list was instituted as a priority action as part of the EU’s “Raw Materials Initiative” of 2008, while the first CRM list was published in 2011. The list initially contained 14 raw materials and the Commissioned committed to update it every 3 years.

The list published on 16 March 2023 on the European Commission’s website as part of the document COM(2023) 160 final titled Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and amending Regulations was expanded with new critical raw materials for the EU (available in Annex II, Section 1).

The list, highlighting strategic raw materials classified as critical, is also available in the document titled Study on the Critical Raw Materials for the EU 2023 Final Report – on page 3. The full list of the (mineral and other) raw materials analysed for the purpose of establishing the list proposed in COM(2023) 160 final is available on page 2 of the Report.

The preparations involved an analysis of 70 different substances verified in terms of their economic importance and supply risk. Ultimately, the number of listed elements was increased from 30 to 34. It saw the return of helium, which was absent for the last three years, while new critical raw materials included copper, nickel, feldspars, and arsenic. Copper and nickel are interesting cases, because they do not meet the CRM thresholds, but can be found in the list in accordance with the Critical Raw Materials Act. Indium and natural rubber were removed from this year’s list. A novelty is the separation of a series of strategic raw materials (16 out of 34).

Out of the new raw materials entered into the CRM list, Poland has mineral deposits and can potentially document more for feldspar (mostly in Lower Silesia and in Little Poland), helium (Greater Poland) – recovery from natural gas, polymetallic deposits of (mainly) copper (Lower Silesia and Lubusz Land), arsenic (Lower Silesia and as an element concurrent with other deposits in Upper Silesia), nickel (Lower Silesia).

The document constituting the basis for the Commission’s findings (Proposal for a Regulation…) contains a series of new and important provisions, including the most important entries of Article 18 (National exploration programmes), requiring Member States, among others, to develop a national exploration programme focused around critical raw materials within a year from the aforementioned Regulation’s entry into force. The programme should be reviewed and – possibly – updated at least every 5 years.

Such a programme, encompassing deep ore deposits, among others, should cover geological mapping, geo-chemical testing of soils, sediments, rocks, geological and derivative testing, especially geo-physical testing, data processing, especially for the purpose of developing deposit prospect maps, re-processing of existing data in terms of possible existence of information about undetected critical raw materials deposits.

Article 25 requires Member States to implement national programmes of mining waste inventories in terms of critical raw materials (within three years from the Regulation’s entry into force). We are pleased to inform you that PGI-NRI has been implementing such a programme for many years and its (partial) results can be found at https://cbdgportal.pgi.gov.pl/haldy.

The next stage of work, intended to develop Part I of the “Balance of anthropogenic resources of Poland”, is planned for launch in 2024. The Regulation’s entry into force will cause the wor to be updated in terms of critical raw materials. The CRM list, which is a list mandatory for all EU Member States, is not the only document that specifies raw materials important for the growth of the Polish economy.

On 1 March 2022, the Council of Ministers adopted the Resolution on the adoption of the “State Resource Policy” (PSP2050). The PSP2050 provides a division, enlisting both critical raw materials for the domestic economy and strategic raw materials for its correct functioning.

Detailed information on the aforementioned minerals, among others, in Poland, can be found in the annual Balance of Mineral Resources of Poland, developed as part of statutory tasks of geological services, and in the decennial Balance of Prospective Mineral Resources of Poland 2020, and on the PGI-NRI’s website – “Mineral Resources of Poland”.