Enhancing Regional Mining Ecosystems in the European Union

Executive summary

This report examines the key challenges and opportunities in the mining ecosystems of ten European Union (EU) regions. It provides recommendations to strengthen their regional conditions to boost EU self-sufficiency in critical raw materials, while ensuring greater environmental responsibility and benefits to communities throughout the mining value chain. The ten EU regions analysed in this report are: Central Ostrobothnia, Kainuu, Lapland, North Karelia and Oulu in Finland, Central Greece in Greece, Alentejo and Centro in Portugal, Andalusia in Spain and Örebro in Sweden.

Assessment

Securing a stable supply of minerals is a priority for the European Union and its member states to strengthen economic sovereignty and competitiveness, boost defence capabilities, and meet EU climate goals. EU industries rely heavily on imported mineral raw materials, importing over 80% of the consumption of 22 critical raw materials, which are essential for clean-energy-transition technologies. In this context, the 2024 Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) has set out measures for member states to increase mineral supply in the European Union via new mines, processing facilities and recycling sources.

While national governments across the European Union oversee mineral policies and regulations, regional authorities are crucial in shaping conditions for implementing competitive, and environmentally responsible mineral-related projects. Strong regional ecosystems enhance project competitiveness by aligning skills and infrastructure with industry needs and driving innovation in resource efficiency and sustainability. They are also vital to harness mining for resilient local development and to strengthen social dialogue and transparency to address social polarisation against mining, a major barrier to project approval in the EU.

The ten regions examined in this study possess various assets that contribute to sustainable EU mineral supply, covering the entire critical raw materials value chain. These assets include among others:

• Important geological endowments: Six of these regions are top EU suppliers of mineral raw materials, including copper and strontium (Andalusia, Alentejo), gold (Lapland), bauxite (Central Greece), tungsten (Centro) and nickel (Kainuu), while others host relevant deposits of cobalt (North Karelia) and lithium (Central Ostrobothnia, Centro).

• Strong innovation and education infrastructure: Oulu hosts a top mining school in the EU, while Centro and North Karelia pilot plants and centres for mineral research and processing.

• Effective mining governance: Some subnational governments (Andalusia in Spain and Sodankylä in Finland) are leading examples in developing mining strategies that link projects with local needs. Others have partnered with mining companies to provide community infrastructure or create economic diversification programmes (Örebro).

• Mining contribution to resilient rural development: Mining municipalities like Kittilä and Sotkamo in Finland, register better population trends than their regions. In 2021, the mining municipality of Castro Verde recorded the highest median income across all municipalities in Portugal.

• Commitment to sustainable and circular mining initiatives: Some host-integrated projects to produce technologies for batteries (Central Ostrobothnia and Kainuu), circular economy initiatives and centres (Centro, Lapland) and renewable energy supply for mineral-related projects (Alentejo Andalusia, Lapland). The average greenhouse gas emission per capita of the EU regions analysed (all except Central Greece) is half the average of OECD mining regions.

Despite these strengths, these ten EU regions face persistent challenges to implement responsible mineral projects. Some challenges are systemic at the EU and national levels, including outdated mineral information, lengthy permitting procedures and deficient communication and participatory strategies to involve local actors in mining. Others are more region-specific, linked to their rural characteristics or planning capacity, including unclear integration of mining with development policies, workforce shortages due to population decline and higher skill mismatches with industry needs relative to the OECD mining regions, high transport infrastructure costs, weak linkages to promote regional innovation in mineral raw materials and to access innovation funding support, and municipal governments with institutional capacity gaps in view of participating in and planning to benefit from mining.

Mining regions are well positioned to play a vital role in securing a reliable and responsible domestic mineral supply for the EU. To this end, this study identifies 15 recommendations across 5 pillars to help regional authorities enhance their regional ecosystems to implement responsible mining projects:

1. Improving regional policy frameworks for responsible mining.

2. Enhancing mining governance, emphasising community participation, permitting and monitoring.

3. Strengthening regional workforce to ensure benefits from mining projects.

4. Enhancing the regional innovation ecosystem and circular economy practices for mining.

5. Strengthening regional road and energy infrastructure.

Additionally, the study offers six recommendations for national governments to strengthen mining strategies, streamline permitting processes and address social concerns about mining.

Summary of recommendations for regional authorities

 

I	Improving regional policy frameworks sustainable mining
1.	Better integrate mineral-related activities in regional development policy, including in smart specialisation strategies.
2.	Leverage mining companies’ environmental, social and governance programmes for regional and local development.
II	Enhancing mining governance at the regional level
3	Improve community participation in mining-related projects, from mining exploration to closure.
4	Enhance communication strategies to improve information about mining and the institutional capacity to mitigate mining environmental impacts.
5	Help improve the mining permitting process with forward-looking land-use planning and capacity support for local authorities and communities.
6	Strengthen the environmental monitoring framework for mining with community-led mechanisms and greater transparency.
III	Strengthening the regional workforce to maximise benefits from mining and industry competitiveness
7	Improve regional skills matching through better collaboration between regional educational institutions and mining companies.
8	Tailor education and training supply through better localisation of training centres and courses adapted to workforce characteristics.
9	Improve outreach on career opportunities in mining with greater communication, particularly to women and younger populations.
10	Support local workforce engagement and retention by enhancing regional attractiveness and support to settle in the community.
IV	Promoting regional innovation ecosystems and circular practices for environmentally sustainable mining
11	Strengthen stakeholders’ co‑operation in the mining regional innovation ecosystem.
12	Enhance funding access for innovative mineral-related projects by reducing information gaps and aligning different funding sources.
13.	Improve waste management and the circular economy in mining with clearer regional priorities and actions for the industry.
V	Enabling regional infrastructure for mining development
14.	Enhance co‑ordination with mining companies and national government on infrastructure planning, investment and maintenance.
15.	Support the renewable and affordable energy deployment for mining and leverage it to meet communities’ energy needs.