Netherlands will strictly monitor supply of raw materials
The Netherlands will monitor the supply of raw materials. These are crucial for the energy transition, among other things.
Published on February 13, 2025
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The Netherlands will monitor the supply risks of critical raw materials more strictly, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has announced. Critical raw materials are important for the green transition because materials such as lithium and cobalt are needed for electric cars and wind turbines. At the moment, we are still dependent on countries outside of Europe, such as China, and we have little insight into the supply risks.
The Netherlands is taking responsibility with the new Nederlands Materialen Observatorium (NMO): a collaboration with knowledge institutes, foreign observatories, and the business community. Undesirable dependencies are identified and alternative sources are provided. The EU has a list of 34 critical raw materials of major economic importance such as lithium, iridium, and cobalt. If the supply of these materials falters, the risks are greatest. Seventeen of these raw materials have been designated as strategic. They are crucial for the energy and digitization transition, for our health, our safety, and the defense and space sectors.
The approach is to ensure that by 2030, a portion of Europe's raw materials consumption is extracted or recycled on European soil. This initiative aims to create a more resilient and independent European market. The EU has set ambitious goals to address vulnerability: by 2030, 10% of strategic raw materials must be extracted within the EU, 40% refined here and 25% recycled. Our current picture of raw materials is incomplete, which means we are not reacting quickly enough to supply risks.
An urgent problem concerning critical raw materials
Europe is currently very dependent on countries outside the continent for certain critical raw materials. Russia, and especially China, are also among the world's biggest players when it comes to the extraction of raw materials such as palladium and aluminum. These are raw materials that we in Europe desperately need for batteries, electric cars, wind turbines, and other innovative technologies that contribute to a green future. For example, Russia produces almost half of the world's palladium: a precious metal that is used in catalysts and is important for the automotive industry.
'The Netherlands is taking its responsibility'
Dirk Beljaarts, Minister of Economic Affairs: “The Netherlands is taking its responsibility to tackle high-risk European dependencies. We have few critical raw materials in the ground, but we can be a processing link in the refining chain, for example. After all, we are an important import and transit country with our ports and hinterland connections.”
Mining expert: Opportunities in Europe
In any case, we have few critical raw materials in the Netherlands. Europe is also a challenge. Yet there are opportunities, Mike Buxton, Section Head for Resource Engineering at TU Delft, previously told IO+. “At a depth of just over a kilometer, you can find copper in the Kupferschiefer of Poland. In Scandinavia, you can find platinum and nickel: important for the production of batteries.” There is probably still a lot we don't know about the metals hidden underground, the professor predicts. “We have already explored the surface of Europe very well. It is even the best-explored geological area in the world. But on the other hand, we have relatively few details about what is happening 400 meters underground.”
Sustainable mining on European soil ‘indispensable for energy transition’
The time has come to make mining more attractive, so that Europe commits to extracting scarce metals from its own soil.