As global EV market gathers speed, EU aims to boost domestic supply of rare earth minerals

ZAWIERCIE, Poland: As the electric vehicle market continues to grow worldwide, demand for rare earth minerals needed to make EV batteries is rising in tandem.
This has sparked concerns in Europe about over-reliance on a single market: China, which currently accounts for more than two-thirds of the world’s production of rare earth minerals.
Such minerals, which include lithium, cobalt and nickel, are also widely used in wind turbines and other renewable energy infrastructure, with demand expected to soar as the green energy transition gathers steam.
As part of efforts to boost domestic supply, the European Union has set ambitious new targets – for 25 per cent of EU demand for rare earth minerals to come from recycling by 2030.
Currently, less than 1 per cent of these valuable minerals that are used in the EU are recycled.
In southern Poland, two companies have formed a joint venture to recycle EV batteries.
The venture, called AE Elemental, is a tie-up between Poland’s Elemental Strategic Metals and United States firm Ascend Elements.
“We have noticed the gap between supply and demand of battery metals in the European market, and we noticed the growing importance of battery recycling especially from the perspective of increasing share of electric vehicles into the market,” said Elemental Strategic Metals board member Maciej Dudzic.
The venture’s new multimillion-dollar metals-processing plant in the Polish town of Zawiercie has the capacity to recycle up to 12,000 tonnes of batteries annually, equivalent to about 28,000 EVs.
EV batteries are recycled by being crushed to create black mass. Lithium and other battery materials are extracted from this and sold back to car companies to build new EVs.
On the same site in Zawiercie, the venture will build a plant that will open in 2026 to extract lithium from black mass, processing up to 20,000 tonnes annually.
Dudzic told CNA: “Of course, it depends on the type of battery, but we can firmly assume that more than 90 per cent of the battery’s mass waste is recovered here and turned into valuable raw materials for further production.”
The EU has also been concerned with reducing dependency on imports. China currently provides up to 100 per cent of the bloc’s supply of certain critical raw materials.
Recent trade tensions between Brussels and Beijing have also accelerated the EU’s efforts to diversify supplies.
To boost independence within the bloc, the Critical Raw Materials Act – which came into force among member states in May – states that 10 per cent of rare earth minerals used in the EU must be mined domestically by 2030.
The EU also aims to process at least 40 per cent and recycle at least 15 per cent of these rare metals.
However, experts have sounded caution over whether these goals can be achieved, given China’s existing market dominance across many rare earth metal markets. 
Other obstacles include the energy-intensive technologies used in recycling, and the lack of an efficient scheme to collect discarded electronics. 
“What we see from policymakers is a plan. It is a target but no policy yet to deliver, and that makes a significant difference when we look at what motivates market actors,” said Raimund Bleischwitz, professor of global sustainable resources at the University of Bremen.
“What businesses want to see is a funding programme; a dedicated policy like a quota that requires new products on the market to have a composition mixed with recycled materials.”
As part of the world’s broader climate goals, transitioning from combustion engines to EVs will play a critical role in reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
But to get there, securing access to rare earth metals remains a key challenge for governments and automakers alike – meaning that salvaging every scrap of these valuable metals will be seen as essential for hitting net-zero emission targets.