Value addition in the context of mineral processing

With the Critical Raw Materials Act that was adopted in December 2023, the European Union strives to secure metal and mineral resources for the twin energy and digital transitions and to become more independent from countries like China, where large parts of extraction but even more processing of minerals is presently taking place. This is meant to be reached by diversification of sources outside of the EU and by increasing mining, processing and recycling within the EU. In particular by promising value creation in mining countries the EU hopes to become a partner of choice for extracting countries. Yet, value addition is defined only poorly in policy documents and the potential benefits and impacts of the first steps of value creation after the extraction has so far hardly been looked at in detail.

What does value creation mean? Are there good practice examples? How do mining and processing companies view the idea of a more decentralised processing?

We want to discuss these questions starting from our study “Value addition in the context of mineral processing”, now also available in Spanish, that draws on experience from different countries, among others Namibia, South Africa and Indonesia, with distinguished experts:

•  Sophia Pickles, expert in raw materials supply chain,  former member of the United Nations Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and author of the study
• Ludivine Wouters, Managing Partner, Latitude Five
• Keren Ben-Zev, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Cape Town

Facilitation: Johanna Sydow, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

Contact:
Annette Kraus
International Environmental Policy Division
E kraus@boell.de

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