While the United States is moving quickly and China continues to dominate much of the critical mineral supply chain, Europe risks falling further behind.
Although Europe has ambitious policy objectives, it still lacks sufficient domestic processing and refining capacity to turn those ambitions into industrial reality.
This is where we see one of Europe’s most significant challenges. The issue is not only where critical minerals are mined, but where they are processed, refined, and converted into usable industrial products.
Europe and the United States remain heavily dependent on China, which dominates large parts of the critical mineral value chain and has spent decades building processing and refining capabilities that are difficult to replicate quickly.
At the same time, pressure on Europe’s battery industry continues to grow, while commodity volatility remains a central theme.
Lithium prices have started to rise again, with inventory drawdowns indicating a tightening market following a prolonged period of oversupply. However, this can change quickly, with rumblings about mine openings causing almost immediate spot price reductions. Copper is also approaching record highs, driven by growing demand from electrification, grid infrastructure, data centres, and industrial expansion.
Meanwhile, rare earth markets remain under pressure due to China’s export controls and licensing restrictions, creating uncertainty throughout downstream industries.
The lesson is clear: critical mineral markets can move rapidly from oversupply to shortage, from weak pricing to strategic concern, and from open trade to controlled access.
Companies that depend on stable commodity markets, predictable investment conditions, and long development timelines are becoming increasingly exposed.
This is why technologies that reduce exposure to commodity volatility are becoming more important. The challenge is no longer simply about mining. It is increasingly about processing.
Governments can establish strategic reserves. They can sign international partnerships, subsidise projects, and restrict exports. However, none of these measures solve the fundamental bottleneck: the ability to process complex and variable feedstocks into high-value mineral products at industrial scale.
Whether the feedstock originates from mining operations, EV battery recycling streams, WEEE, or future end-of-life magnet recovery processes, the challenge remains the same.
The ability to efficiently recover and refine valuable materials is what ultimately determines supply chain resilience.
This is particularly relevant for Europe, where ambitions under the Critical Raw Materials Act will require not only new sources of critical raw materials, but also the industrial capability to process them.
That remains one of Europe’s greatest weaknesses.
For Nordic Salt Cycle, recent developments reinforce our core thesis. Europe does not simply need greater ambition around critical raw materials. It needs infrastructure and technologies capable of making critical mineral recovery commercially viable.
This includes technologies that reduce costs, simplify refining, accommodate variable feedstocks, and accelerate the transition from pilot projects to industrial deployment.
Our molten salt platform is designed to simplify complexity within the recovery and refining value chain. We begin with battery black mass and materials generated through EV battery recycling, but the underlying platform extends much further.
Using selective molten salt processing, we upgrade complex feedstocks into high-value intermediates that can be more easily integrated into existing industrial supply chains.
The result is lower process intensity, reduced downstream costs, improved flexibility, and a stronger foundation for a more resilient and circular battery supply chain.
As Europe seeks to secure access to critical minerals in general, strengthen lithium recovery from batteries, and build a more competitive lithium-ion battery supply chain, scalable processing technologies will become increasingly important.
Ultimately, Europe’s competitiveness in critical raw materials will depend not only on access to resources, but on its ability to process, refine, and transform those resources into industrial value.
