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José Luis Piedra
Seville
Tuesday, 6 May 2025, 17:56
After decades of decline, Andalucía has experienced a resurgence in its mining activity in recent years. This great impetus is largely driven by the urgent need for critical raw materials in today's productive sector - what Ukraine has called 'rare earths' in the recent agreement with the US for the exploitation of its subsoil.
The demand and the need for these materials has led the EU to invest in the search for and exploitation of these valuable resources. This has taken the union to Andalucía, which has rich deposits that open new opportunities for its mining sector.
These critical materials are essential for the manufacture of technological products that are now in everyday use: from mobile phones, computers, tablets, TVs and household appliances to other components needed for booming industries such as aerospace, defence, renewable energies and other production activities linked to digitalisation and electronics.
Brussels has drawn up a catalogue of the 34 most needed raw materials, 17 of which have been identified as strategic, including lithium, aluminium, silicon, gallium, manganese, germanium, graphite, titanium and boron.
In order to increase the procurement of these resources, the EU has launched a strategy to ensure its self-sufficiency in essential materials, the demand for which is set to grow significantly in the future, and reduce the current excessive dependence on supplies from other countries such as China - the leading exporter of these materials.
The EU authorities have been drawn to Andalucía's mineral wealth, which has prompted it to launch two strategic initiatives in the region. One is the Cobre las Cruces polymetallurgical refinery (PMR) project in Gerena (Seville) for subsoil recovery and production of copper, zinc, lead and silver. The other project is the CirCular electronic waste recycling plant to be set up by Atlantic Copper at its Huelva refinery.
These Andalusian projects form part of the 47 projects classified as strategic throughout Europe, of which seven are located in Spain. These initiatives add value by focusing on mineral processing and the reuse of recycled minerals, thereby strengthening their sustainability.
According to a study by the regional ministry of industry, energy and mines, Andalucía is home to almost 2,000 exploration points with indications of 22 different strategic minerals considered fundamental by the EU and susceptible to exploitation.
The minerals are: antimony, barium, beryllium, bismuth, boron, cobalt, copper, strontium, feldspar, fluorspar, phosphorus, graphite, lithium, magnesium, manganese, nickel, platinum, silicon metal, rare earths, titanium, vanadium and tungsten. Despite this long list of Andalusian subsoil resources, only four are currently being exploited: copper, strontium, fluorspar and feldspar.
In addition, the regional ministry has reactivated mining research in 457 areas corresponding to expired mining rights over 257,000 hectares in the region, after almost ten years without a call for applications.
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