Real-time intelligence on supply chains, supplier risks, regulations, and geopolitical tensions shaping Europe's access to the 14 critical minerals that power the green transition.
14
Critical minerals tracked
68%
EU rare earth dependency on China
47
CRMA strategic projects
2030
CRMA benchmark deadline
CRMA 2030 Deadline — Time Remaining
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days
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hours
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mins
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secs
Until all four CRMA binding benchmarks must be met — 1 Jan 2030
What STRATUM does
Intelligence for strategic decisions
From lithium in Chile to rare earths in China — STRATUM maps Europe's mineral vulnerabilities in real time.
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World Map
Interactive global map of dominant suppliers, EU strategic partners, CRMA project hosts, and critical mineral regions.
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Tracker
Live risk dashboard, 47 strategic projects, mining companies, live news feed, and AI analyst — all in one place.
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EU Governance
The 7-layer institutional architecture behind the CRMA — from the Commission down to national authorities.
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Regulations
Global critical minerals legislation from 22 countries — status, scope, and links to official sources.
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Partnerships
Bilateral and multilateral trade agreements covering critical minerals — with links to official treaty texts.
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Sentiment
Community voting on key questions about the EU's critical minerals strategy, performance, and geopolitical risks.
Intelligence
⬡ Risk Dashboard
✦ 47 Strategic Projects
📈 Mining Companies
⚡ Alerts 5
Risk Dashboard
CRMA 2030 Deadline
Time remaining until all four binding benchmarks must be met — 1 Jan 2030
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days
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hours
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mins
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secs
Minerals tracked
14
EU CRM Act strategic list
High-risk suppliers
6
single-country >60%
China dependency
68%
avg. rare earths
Active alerts
4
supply disruptions
CRMA deadline
2030
all benchmarks
🇪🇺
Critical Raw Materials Act — 2030 Benchmarks
Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 · Entered into force May 2024
must be extracted within the EU by 2030. Current domestic extraction covers less than 3% for most strategic minerals.
Current EU status
~3% achieved · 7pp gap
Benchmark 2 — Processing
40%
of EU annual consumption
must be processed within the EU by 2030. Currently China handles 60–90% of processing for most battery minerals.
Current EU status
~15% achieved · 25pp gap
Benchmark 3 — Recycling
25%
of EU annual consumption
must come from recycled material within the EU by 2030. Requires major scale-up of EV battery and electronics recycling infrastructure.
Current EU status
~10% achieved · 15pp gap
Diversification Rule — CRMA Article 5
65%
maximum single-country share
No single third country may supply more than 65% of the EU's annual consumption of any strategic raw material at any stage of processing. Currently breached for 6 minerals.
Dominant supplier
China in all 6 cases
98%
Rare Earths
China · +33pp over cap
98%
Boron
Turkey · +33pp over cap
94%
Gallium
China · +29pp over cap
93%
Magnesium
China · +28pp over cap
90%
Germanium
China · +25pp over cap
78%
Tungsten
China · +13pp over cap
72%
Cobalt
DRC · +7pp over cap
68%
Lithium (proc.)
China · +3pp over cap
Green line = 65% CRMA diversification cap · Red = critical breach · Amber = marginal breach
Overall CRMA 2030 progress — European Court of Auditors assessment (Feb 2026)
The European Court of Auditors found in February 2026 that EU efforts to diversify critical raw material imports have not produced measurable results and that the 2030 targets appear increasingly out of reach without faster domestic development and meaningful processing and recycling scale-up. Permitting timelines, energy costs, and community acceptance remain as determinative as geology.
Import dependency % by mineral
Green line = 65% CRMA diversification cap
Strategic stockpile (days of reserve)
Target: 90 days for all strategic minerals
Supplier concentration risk
⚠ Red = breaching CRMA 65% cap | ▲ = worsening | ↓ = improving
Supplier
Mineral
EU dependency
vs 65% cap
Risk
Trend
CRMA Strategic Projects · First Selection March 2025
47 EU Strategic Projects — Tracker
All 47 carry CRMA fast-track status · Commission permitting deadline: 27 months (extraction) / 15 months (processing & recycling)
Phase:● Operational● Permitting● Feasibility⚡ National fast-track⚠ Risk flagged
Filter:
Project ↕
Country
Type ↕
Minerals
Phase ↕
Permit status
Investment
Risk flags
Financial Performance Tracker
Mining Companies & ETFs
EU & global leaders in critical mineral extraction, processing, recycling — plus key ETFs
27
Tracked
⚠ 20Y return & dividend yield are indicative figures based on historical data (as of early 2025). Not financial advice. Verify on Yahoo Finance before investing.
Add company to tracker
Company name *
Ticker symbol
Country
Category
Key minerals
Market cap (€B)
Notes
Active Supply Alerts
EU CRM Act — Official List
The 14 Critical Minerals
Defined under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (2024) as strategic materials essential for the green transition, defense, and digital industries — where the EU faces dangerous import dependency.
CRMA Strategic Projects — First Selection · March 2025
47 EU Strategic Projects
Selected by the European Commission under the Critical Raw Materials Act, these 47 projects are designed to boost domestic extraction, processing, recycling and substitution of strategic raw materials across the EU. They benefit from fast-track permitting, coordinated Commission support, and access to EU financing instruments.
Total projects
47
First CRMA selection
Total investment
€22.5B
Capital investment estimated
Timeline
2030
Implementation from March 2025
Project types
4
Extract · Process · Recycle · Substitute
EU countries involved
14
France leads with most projects
All 47 projects adhere to ESG criteria, demonstrate cross-border benefits for the EU, and benefit from streamlined permitting provisions and coordinated access to finance from the Commission, Member States, and EU financial institutions including the EIB. Projects span extraction and processing operations both within the EU and in partner countries (Namibia, Norway).
Filter:
Official source
This list reflects the first batch of CRMA Strategic Projects selected by the European Commission on 25 March 2025. The Commission will continue to assess and select further projects on a rolling basis.
The EU's critical minerals governance involves five distinct layers — from binding legislation down to financing. Understanding how these institutions interact is essential to tracking how policy becomes reality.
How the system works — 7 layers
L1 · Policy & Legislation
Commission · Parliament · Council
L2 · Coordination
CRMA Board · ERMA
L3 · Science & Analysis
Joint Research Centre (JRC)
L4 · Innovation
EIT RawMaterials · EIC
L5 · Finance
EIB (€2B initiative) · EBRD (€100M fund)
L6 · Oversight & Audit
European Court of Auditors · Commission reporting · Parliament ITRE
L7 · Implementation — Foundation Layer
National Competent Authorities · Geological Surveys · Recycling Authorities
← NARROWS TO TOP▲ POLICY AUTHORITYWIDENS TO BASE →
Layers 1–5 design, fund and coordinate the system → Layer 6 audits it → Layer 7 executes it on the ground.
The biggest gap is between Layer 1 (ambition) and Layer 7 (reality).
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Layer 1
Policy & Legislation
The institutions that propose, debate, and enact binding EU law on critical minerals
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European Commission
LEGISLATIVE INITIATOR
The Commission has the exclusive right to propose EU legislation. It drafted the CRMA, selects and monitors Strategic Projects, manages the EU's critical minerals partnerships with third countries, and chairs the CRMA Board. DG GROW (Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship) leads on critical minerals policy.
Co-legislates with the Council on all critical minerals regulations via the ordinary legislative procedure. The ITRE Committee (Industry, Research and Energy) leads Parliament's work on the CRMA. Parliament significantly strengthened recycling targets and added the 65% diversification cap during CRMA negotiations. MEPs also scrutinise Commission decisions on Strategic Project selection.
Co-legislates CRMAITRE CommitteeStrengthened 65% cap
Represents the 27 EU member state governments. Co-legislates with Parliament on the CRMA and all related regulations. The Competitiveness Council (ministers responsible for industry and research) handles critical minerals legislation. Council adopted the CRMA unanimously in March 2024 — a rare signal of cross-party and cross-national consensus on mineral security.
Competitiveness CouncilUnanimous CRMA adoption27 member state views
Bodies that coordinate between member states, industry, and institutions to implement policy
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European Critical Raw Materials Board
CRMA GOVERNANCE BODY · EST. 2024
Established by the CRMA (Article 35), the Board is chaired by the European Commission and includes one representative from each member state. Its core functions are to advise the Commission on Strategic Project selection, monitor supply chain risks, coordinate national exploration programmes, and facilitate information sharing. The Board also oversees the CRMA's mandatory supply chain auditing requirements for large companies.
CRMA Article 3527 member states + CommissionStrategic Project oversight
Launched in 2020 by the Commission as part of the European Green Deal, ERMA brings together over 400 industry, research, and civil society actors across the rare earth, permanent magnet, and battery supply chain. It identifies investment gaps, builds supply chain communities, and provides market intelligence. ERMA is now a key delivery mechanism for CRMA implementation, especially for rare earth magnets and advanced materials.
400+ membersRare earths focusInvestment gap analysis
The scientific and analytical backbone that produces the evidence base for all EU minerals policy decisions
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Joint Research Centre (JRC)
EU SCIENCE SERVICE · DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
The JRC is the European Commission's in-house science and knowledge service. For critical minerals, it produces the Critical Raw Materials assessments (the basis for the official EU CRM list, updated every 4 years), supply chain analysis, substitution research, and geoscience data. The JRC's "Critical Raw Materials for Strategic Technologies and Sectors" report is the definitive policy-guiding document. It directly informs which minerals appear on the CRMA's strategic list.
CRM criticality assessmentsOfficial list methodologySupply chain modelling
Institutions that accelerate technological innovation in critical mineral extraction, processing, recycling, and substitution
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EIT RawMaterials
KNOWLEDGE & INNOVATION COMMUNITY
Part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), EIT RawMaterials is the world's largest raw materials innovation community. It funds research and innovation projects, supports start-ups, runs education programmes, and bridges academia, industry, and policy. With over 150 partners across 22 countries, it covers the full raw materials value chain from extraction to recycling — with particular focus on sustainable mining, hydrometallurgy, and urban mining technologies.
150+ partners, 22 countriesStart-up supportFull value chain R&D
The EIC funds breakthrough innovations through grants and equity investment (up to €15M per company). For critical minerals, the EIC funds deep-tech companies developing novel extraction (e.g. direct lithium extraction from geothermal brines), hydrometallurgical processing, and advanced recycling technologies. The EIC Accelerator has backed companies addressing EU mineral vulnerabilities including rare earth magnet recycling and gallium/germanium substitution.
Up to €15M equityHorizon EuropeDeep tech start-ups
The financing institutions that translate policy into capital — turning CRMA Strategic Project designation into actual investment
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European Investment Bank (EIB)
EU CLIMATE BANK · LARGEST LENDER
The world's largest multilateral development bank and the EU's "climate bank." In March 2025, the EIB adopted a new Critical Minerals Initiative with an expected €2B in financing and a dedicated one-stop shop for CRMA Strategic Projects. The EIB provides loans, equity, and guarantees — its AAA credit rating allows it to mobilise private capital at below-market rates. Priority is given to projects supporting EU battery supply chains, rare earth processing, and recycling infrastructure.
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
TRANSITION ECONOMY BANK · 38 COUNTRIES
The EBRD operates across 38 countries and is a critical financing partner for EU mineral supply chains in Central Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. In July 2024, the EC and EBRD launched a joint exploration equity facility targeting €100M to support early-stage mining projects in EBRD countries of operation. The EBRD finances critical mineral projects in Kazakhstan, Zambia, Namibia, and the Western Balkans — extending EU financing reach beyond member state borders.
€100M EC-EBRD exploration fundCentral Asia & Africa projects38 countries
Who checks that the targets are actually being met — and raises the alarm when they are not
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European Court of Auditors (ECA)
EU EXTERNAL AUDITOR · INDEPENDENT
The ECA is the EU's independent external auditor. It audits the legality and sound financial management of EU institutions and policies — including critical minerals. In February 2026, the ECA published a landmark assessment finding that EU efforts to diversify critical raw material imports have not produced measurable results and that the 2030 CRMA targets are "increasingly out of reach." This was the most authoritative external challenge to CRMA implementation to date. The ECA's findings feed directly into European Parliament scrutiny and public accountability.
Fully independent of CommissionFeb 2026: "not measurable results"Informs Parliament scrutiny
Under CRMA Article 42, the Commission must publish an annual progress report on EU critical mineral supply chains, covering progress towards the 10/40/25% benchmarks, Strategic Project implementation status, and supply risk monitoring. The CRMA Board reviews this report. Large companies (500+ employees, €150M+ turnover) are also required to audit their critical mineral supply chains and report to the Commission — creating a bottom-up accountability flow alongside the top-down Commission reporting.
Annual benchmark progress reportLarge company supply auditsCRMA Board review
Beyond co-legislating, Parliament exercises ongoing democratic oversight of CRMA implementation. MEPs can submit parliamentary questions to the Commission demanding explanations on Strategic Project delays, supply chain risks, or compliance failures. The ITRE Committee holds regular hearings with Commissioners and industry. The ENVI (Environment) committee scrutinises the ESG compliance of Strategic Projects. Parliamentary scrutiny is the most visible form of political accountability in the governance system.
Parliamentary questions to CommissionITRE & ENVI committee hearingsESG compliance scrutiny
The governance system has strong institutional design on paper but faces real accountability gaps in practice. The Commission both implements CRMA policy and monitors its own progress — an inherent conflict that the ECA has flagged. The CRMA Board is an advisory body chaired by the Commission itself; it cannot override Commission decisions or impose sanctions on underperforming member states. The ECA's February 2026 finding that results are "not measurable" is significant precisely because it came from the only body that is genuinely independent of the implementation chain. The clearest honest answer: legislative and coordination architecture is in place, but enforcement mechanisms for the 2030 benchmarks are weak, and the primary accountability pressure currently comes from external scrutiny (ECA, Parliament) rather than built-in compliance mechanisms.
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Layer 7 — The implementation frontier
National Authorities
Where EU policy meets the ground — member states hold the real permitting, enforcement, veto, and geological data powers over every domestic project
National authorities are arguably the most operationally powerful actors in the entire CRMA governance system. The Commission can designate a project as strategic — but it cannot issue a single mining permit, approve an environmental impact assessment, or enforce local law. All of that happens at national level. Under the CRMA, member states were required to designate a National Competent Authority (NCA) as a single permitting contact by February 2025. Some are still in the process of doing so.
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National Competent Authorities
CRMA ARTICLE 8 · SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT
Each member state must designate one NCA to coordinate all national, regional, and local permits across every government department. For Strategic Projects the NCA must deliver a final permit decision within 27 months for extraction and 15 months for processing/recycling — hard CRMA deadlines designed to break Europe's permitting bottlenecks.
Every member state must run a mandatory national geological exploration programme — mineral mapping, geochemical surveys, and geoscientific data that must be publicly accessible. National surveys (Sweden's SGU, Germany's BGR, Finland's GTK) are the operational bodies. Their data feeds the EU's geological intelligence and informs where Strategic Projects can realistically be built.
Mandatory under CRMAPublic geological databasesSGU · BGR · GTK
Member states hold a formal veto right over Strategic Project designation. The Commission assesses criteria and forwards to the member state concerned — which can block further assessment entirely. This preserves national sovereignty over land use but creates a political bottleneck: community opposition, electoral pressures, or local politics can override EU-level ambitions at any point.
Member states must improve collection of critical mineral-rich waste and ensure recycling into secondary raw materials. For abandoned mines, states are explicitly required to gather mineral content data and publish it publicly. National environment ministries and waste agencies are the implementing bodies directly responsible for the EU's 25% recycling benchmark.
Mandatory waste measuresAbandoned mine data dutyDelivers 25% recycling target
CRMA Article 44 requires member states to establish effective, proportionate penalties for CRMA violations — including administrative fines, project suspension, and withdrawal of Strategic Project status. National courts and regulators are the final enforcement bodies. As of early 2026, no member state has reported a formal enforcement action, as the compliance cycle is still being established.
Fines, suspension, withdrawalNo actions yet (2026)National courts as final arbiter
Every member state holds one seat on the Critical Raw Materials Board — filled by industry, energy, or economy ministries. This is where national governments collectively push back on Commission proposals and flag implementation problems. States with active Strategic Projects (France, Finland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden) are the most engaged; smaller states with fewer geological assets tend to be less active.
One seat per stateIndustry / energy ministriesCollective pushback channel
National authorities are simultaneously the primary implementers of CRMA targets and the primary source of delay in reaching them. Mining permitting in Europe has historically taken 10–15 years — the CRMA's 27-month deadline requires most member states to fundamentally reform their internal administrative processes. Many have not yet done so. The veto right also means national political cycles, community opposition, and electoral pressures can override EU-level ambitions at any point. The Commission's only tool if a member state fails is an infringement procedure — a slow, adversarial, and politically costly last resort that has never been used for minerals policy.
Produces CRM criticality assessments; methodological basis for CRM list
CRM Assessment reports
EIT RawMaterials
Innovation
Largest raw materials innovation community; funds R&D and start-ups
150+ partners
EIC
Innovation
Funds deep tech breakthroughs in extraction, processing, recycling
EIC Accelerator · €15M max
EIB
Finance
Largest lender; €2B Critical Minerals Initiative; CRMA Strategic Project loans
€2B initiative · AAA rated
EBRD
Finance
Finances supply chain projects in Central Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe
€100M EC-EBRD fund · 38 countries
Global Policy Tracker
Critical Minerals Regulations
32 regulations & strategies across 6 categories — from EU supranational law to national policies on every continent. Click any card to visit the official source.
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Category 1 · Supranational
EU-Level Regulation
Binding on all 27 EU member states · Enacted by the European Parliament & Council
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Category 2 · EU Member State
EU National Strategies & Action Plans
Non-binding national government strategies and investment funds — not legally binding, but set government priorities and budget allocations
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Category 3 · North America
North American Regulations
United States · Canada
🌎
Category 4 · South America
South American Regulations
Brazil · Chile — home to the world's largest lithium and niobium reserves
🌏
Category 5 · Asia & Oceania
Asia & Oceania Regulations
China · Japan · South Korea · India · Indonesia · Australia · UK · Mongolia · Kazakhstan
🌍
Category 6 · Africa
African Regulations
South Africa · Zambia · DR Congo · Namibia · Morocco — holds ~30% of global critical mineral reserves
International Agreements
Mineral Partnerships & Trade Agreements
Bilateral and multilateral partnerships specifically covering critical minerals, supply chain cooperation, and strategic resource agreements — with links to official treaty texts.
"What you cannot measure, you cannot understand."
Founding principle of STRATUM
About STRATUM
For clarity in chaos, and competitiveness in a world of resource rivalry.
STRATUM is a geopolitical intelligence platform mapping the global critical minerals landscape — tracking the 14 materials that underpin Europe's green transition, defense capability, and digital economy, while analysing the international supply chains, geopolitical power dynamics, and resource rivalries that shape who controls them.
The EU imports over 90% of its rare earths from China, 72% of its cobalt from the DRC, and remains deeply exposed to supply shocks across its entire battery and semiconductor supply chain.
Powered by Claude AI (Anthropic) with live web search, surfacing real-time intelligence from IEA reports, Eurostat data, and breaking geopolitical news. Data sources: EU CRM Act, IEA, Eurostat, European Commission.
EU CRM ACT
Critical Raw Materials Act
EU dependency benchmarks and strategic reserves.
IEA
Int'l Energy Agency
Global mineral supply data and demand projections.
EUROSTAT
EU Statistical Office
Import/export statistics and trade flow data.
LIVE AI
Claude + Web Search
Real-time news analyzed by Claude Sonnet.
14 Critical minerals
SYM
MINERAL
EU IMPORT DEPENDENCY
Live Community Sentiment
EU Critical Minerals — Prediction Market
Vote on key questions about the EU's critical minerals strategy and performance. Click any option to cast your vote. Add your own questions below.
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Global Critical Minerals Intelligence
World Map — Who Controls What
The global leaders in critical minerals supply. Color shows each country's role — dominant supplier, EU strategic partner, or CRMA project host. Hover any country for details.
Dominant supplier — critical risk
Major supplier — high risk
EU strategic partner
CRMA project host (EU)
Emerging supplier
No significant role
Supply Chain Dominance
Who is #1 at each stage · by mineral
Sources: IEA 2025 · USGS 2025 · EC JRC
Mineral
⛏ Extraction
⚗ Processing
🔧 Manufacturing
♻ Recycling
Rare Earths
🇨🇳China60%
🇨🇳China90%
🇨🇳China92% NdFeB magnets
🇯🇵JapanPioneer
Cobalt
🇨🇩DRC72%
🇨🇳China74%
🇨🇳China~70% battery Co
🇧🇪BelgiumUmicore #1
Lithium
🇦🇺Australia47% hard rock
🇨🇳China60%
🇨🇳China77% Li-ion cells
🇨🇳China60% by volume
Nickel
🇮🇩Indonesia37%
🇨🇳China35%
🇨🇳Chinastainless/battery
🇫🇮FinlandHarjavalta
Platinum Group
🇿🇦South Africa72%
🇿🇦South Africaleads
🇩🇪Germanycatalyst tech
🇧🇪BelgiumUmicore #1
Copper
🇨🇱Chile27%
🇨🇳China40%
🇨🇳Chinawire & components
🇩🇪GermanyAurubis #1 EU
Gallium
🇨🇳China94%
🇨🇳China94%
🇨🇳ChinaGaAs wafers/LEDs
No major recycler yet
Graphite
🇨🇳China65%
🇨🇳China70%
🇨🇳Chinaanode material
🇪🇺EU (emerging)Talga/Imerys
China holds the #1 position in processing for every single mineral tracked · Sources: IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025 · USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025