Critical raw materials strategic projects: the EU picks 46, five in Italy

FRIDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2026

Mines, refineries and recycling plants in 16 countries to reduce dependence on China. But European supply of magnets, cells and graphite is still years away.

On 9 October the European Commission selected 46 new critical raw materials strategic projects, spread across 16 member states: five are in Italy. They are mines, refineries and recycling plants that will get faster permitting and easier access to finance, to reduce Europe's dependence on a few foreign suppliers, China first among them.

What critical raw materials strategic projects are

Strategic project status is provided for by the Critical Raw Materials Act, the EU regulation in force since 2024. It does not automatically bring EU funding: it gives faster authorisation procedures and helps developers find banks and investors. This is the second selection after the one in March 2025, which chose 47 projects inside the EU and 13 in third countries.

The new projects cover 15 of the 17 raw materials the EU considers strategic, from nickel and cobalt to graphite and rare earths. More than one in three is about recycling, that is, recovering metals from batteries, panels and scrap.

• Projects selected on 9 October 2026: 46 in 16 member states, 5 of them in Italy.
• By stage of the supply chain: 8 extraction, 11 processing, 19 recycling and 8 integrated.
• By material, battery supply chain: 12 projects on nickel, 10 on cobalt, 5 on manganese, 4 on graphite.
• For permanent magnets: 4 projects on rare earths.
• Projects from the first 2025 selection: 25 have completed the environmental impact assessment and 17 hold a building permit.

The 2030 targets and how far there is to go

The regulation sets four benchmarks for 2030, measured against the EU's annual consumption of each strategic raw material: at least 10% extracted in Europe, 40% processed in Europe, 25% covered by recycling, and no more than 65% from any single third country.

According to the Commission, adding up the projects from both selections, the EU could meet the extraction targets for lithium, nickel, rare earths, magnesium and tungsten and the processing targets for lithium and rare earths. For processing, gaps remain for cobalt, covered at 89%, tungsten, at 57%, and magnesium, at 51%. The recycling targets would be met for lithium, cobalt and rare earths.

Since the RESourceEU plan was launched in December 2025, European public instruments have mobilised more than 2 billion euros for projects from the first selection, through the Innovation Fund, state aid and the European Investment Bank. A new call for further strategic projects is expected by the end of 2026.

The five Italian projects

Italy secures five projects, mainly focused on recycling, as in the first selection, when the four Italian projects chosen were all recovery plants. Italy's Minister of Enterprises, Adolfo Urso, described the result as recognition of the Italian recycling industry. For anyone buying components this is a relevant detail: recycling is the stage that can start earliest, because it does not require opening a mine.

What it means for importers

The selection changes nothing in the short term: mines and refineries take years between permits, construction and start-up, and a year and a half after the first selection fewer than half of those projects hold a building permit. The figure does not say when European supply will become significant, but it signals that for the next few years components such as magnets, cells and graphite will keep arriving largely from Asian supply chains.

For importers of consumer goods, promotional items or components, it is worth knowing which products contain these materials: electric motors, speakers and earbuds with neodymium magnets, power banks and devices with lithium batteries, electronics with cobalt and nickel. These are the categories most exposed to possible export restrictions by supplier countries, a tool China has already used on rare earths.

In practice, the picture suggests three checks: ask the supplier where magnets and cells come from, consider a second supplier for the most exposed components, and keep safety stock for items that depend on a single critical component. The 65% threshold concerns EU policy, not obligations on individual importers, but it shows the direction of European policy in the coming years.

The next steps

The Commission is working on the European Critical Raw Materials Centre, provided for by the regulation, which is to coordinate joint purchasing and strategic stockpiles, and is preparing a third call by the end of 2026. The real indicator to watch will be the number of plants that move from permit to production.

With La Merce, importers of products with magnets or batteries map the origin of these components with their supplier, now that, according to the Commission, the critical raw materials strategic projects cover 89% of the 2030 processing target for cobalt and 51% of the one for magnesium.

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