# EU Critical Raw Materials Act's second strategic project list adds 47 projects across lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earths; first permits processed in 24 months
> The European Commission published its second CRMA Strategic Projects selection in March 2026, bringing the total to 94 projects; member states must issue permits within 24 months; the CRMA sets 2030 supply benchmarks requiring 10% domestic extraction and 40% EU processing

**Meta:** type: story · date: 2026-03-01 · heads: 장기전, 누가 결정하는가 · 9 takes · 3 lenses · 5 regions

## Summary

The European Commission published its second Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) Strategic Projects list in March 2026, selecting 47 new projects and bringing the cumulative total to 94 across EU member states and associated countries. The CRMA, which entered force in May 2024, sets 2030 benchmarks requiring 10% of EU consumption to be domestically extracted and 40% to be processed within the EU. Strategic projects receive fast-track permitting with a 24-month statutory ceiling. The second list includes lithium extraction projects in Austria (Wolfsberg), Portugal (Savannah), Czech Republic and Finland; nickel in Finland; rare earth elements from LKAB's iron-ore tailings operation in Sweden; and battery precursor processing plants in Germany, France and Poland. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence analysis estimates that if all 94 strategic projects execute to timeline, the EU would reach approximately 8% of its own battery-lithium demand from domestic extraction by 2030, short of the 10% target. The first-list projects (selected July 2024) have seen only 12 of 47 receive initial national permits within the 24-month statutory window; 35 are still pending.

## The split

European Commission and trade officials frame the CRMA as the EU's structural answer to Chinese supply-chain dominance: by creating a legal fast-track, a 24-month permit ceiling and a strategic project designation that unlocks EU financing instruments (InvestEU, European Investment Bank), the CRMA converts permitting bottlenecks, Europe's chronic constraint on mining projects, into a solvable administrative problem. Critics in Euractiv and the mining finance community note that the 24-month ceiling has no enforcement mechanism: if a member state's permitting authority misses the deadline, there is no sanction. The first-list experience, 35 of 47 projects still awaiting initial permits two years in, supports this scepticism. Environmental groups in Austria, Portugal and Finland oppose individual projects on biodiversity and water-quality grounds, and local opposition has delayed several first-list projects. The 40% processing benchmark requires EU-based cathode and precursor manufacturing that currently relies on Asian joint-venture partners; without those JVs, the processing target cannot be met from European-owned capacity alone.

## By the numbers

- 94, total CRMA Strategic Projects after the second selection (47 first list + 47 second list).
- May 2024, CRMA entry into force.
- 24 months, statutory permitting ceiling for strategic projects.
- 12 of 47, first-list projects that received initial national permits within the 24-month window (as of March 2026).
- 10%, CRMA 2030 target for domestic extraction share of EU consumption (Benchmark: on track for ~8%).
- 40%, CRMA 2030 target for EU-processed share of consumption.
- 60%, CRMA 2030 target: no single third country should supply more than 65% of any strategic raw material to the EU.

## Why it matters

The CRMA is the EU's primary policy lever for reducing dependence on Chinese critical mineral supply chains, paralleling the US IRA/DoD strategy but with different tools: permitting acceleration and project designation rather than price floors or equity investment. Whether the Act delivers its 2030 targets hinges on member-state implementation, which has been slow in the first two years. Europe's rare earth situation is particularly exposed: [NdPr](/ko/entity/neodymium) and [dysprosium](/ko/entity/dysprosium) for EV drive-motor magnets reach European car manufacturers at up to six times Chinese domestic prices, a structural cost disadvantage that will persist until EU or allied refining capacity (LKAB, REEtec, Carester in France) scales. The 40% processing benchmark and the 65% single-supplier cap are the CRMA's most ambitious targets; both require industrial investment timelines of 5-10 years even with fast-track permitting. The G7 Évian commitment and the G7/MSP framework provide a complementary allied dimension, but the EU must develop its own upstream processing capacity to reduce dependence on Chinese battery-precursor supply.

## What to watch

- Second-list project permitting rates: whether the March 2026 selections achieve a higher initial-permit rate than the first list.
- LKAB rare earth extraction from Kiruna iron-ore tailings: whether the pilot-scale REE separation achieves commercial volumes and when.
- EU financing: InvestEU and EIB allocations to CRMA strategic projects, and whether EU funding is sufficient to attract private capital alongside it.
- The 65% single-supplier cap enforcement: whether any strategic raw material is flagged as exceeding the cap and what supply-diversification action follows.
- Industrial battery cathode production in Europe: BASF (Schwarzheide), Umicore (Nysa) and others as the processing-benchmark test cases.

## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens)

### unlabelled
- **European Commission (official)** (European Union, en) — Official European Commission announcement of the second CRMA Strategic Projects list: 47 new projects selected, bringing the cumulative total to 94; projects span extraction (lithium in Portugal, Czech Republic, Finland; nickel in Finland; rare earth projects in Sweden and Norway), processing (battery precursor plants in Germany, France, Poland) and recycling; all strategic projects receive fast-track permitting with a 24-month statutory limit.
  Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_3_crma_strategic_projects_second_list
- **Benchmark Mineral Intelligence** (Global, en) — Supply-impact analysis of the combined 94 CRMA strategic projects: if all projects execute to timeline, the EU would achieve approximately 8% of its own battery-lithium demand domestically extracted by 2030, short of the 10% CRMA target; NdPr separation capacity in Sweden (LKAB) and Germany (REEtec joint ventures) could cover 15-20% of EU rare earth demand by 2030; notes significant execution risk given permitting and financing timelines.
  > "If all CRMA strategic projects execute on time, the EU reaches ~8% domestic lithium extraction by 2030, short of the 10% target."
  Source: https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/eu-crma-strategic-projects-critical-minerals-2026-supply-impact
- **Financial Times** (United Kingdom, en) — 
  Source: https://www.ft.com/content/eu-crma-critical-raw-materials-act-strategic-projects-2026
- **Politico Europe** (European Union, en) — 
  Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-critical-raw-materials-act-strategic-projects-supply-chain-2026/
- **Reuters** (Global, en) — 
  Source: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/eu-critical-raw-materials-act-strategic-projects-second-list-2026/
- **Rzeczpospolita (Poland)** (Poland, pl) — 
  Source: https://www.rp.pl/biznes/art41292811-ue-lista-projektow-strategicznych-surowce-krytyczne-2026
- **Le Monde** (France, fr) — 
  Source: https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2026/03/05/matieres-premieres-critiques-l-ue-accelere-sur-les-projets-strategiques_6272412_3234.html

### EU policy specialist
- **Euractiv** (European Union, en) — Policy analysis of the second CRMA selection: notes that the 24-month permitting commitment is a legal obligation on member states but lacks enforcement mechanism if individual national permitting authorities delay; documents that the first-list projects (47 projects selected July 2024) have seen 12 of 47 receive initial permits within the statutory window, with 35 still pending; questions whether the second list will improve the implementation rate.
  > "The EU's second CRMA strategic project list adds 47 projects but faces questions over whether the 24-month permitting commitment will be enforced."
  Source: https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/eu-crma-second-strategic-projects-list-2026/

### mining engineering trade
- **Mining Technology** (United Kingdom, en) — Details specific project selections in the second list: the Wolfsberg lithium mine in Austria (European Lithium), the Savannah lithium-caesium-tantalum project in Portugal (Savannah Resources), and LKAB's rare earth element extraction from iron-ore tailings in Sweden; notes the CRMA's 40% processing benchmark requires EU-based cathode and precursor manufacturing that is mostly reliant on Asian joint-venture partners.
  > "EU CRMA second list includes Austria's Wolfsberg lithium mine, Portugal's Savannah project and Sweden's LKAB REE extraction."
  Source: https://www.mining-technology.com/news/eu-crma-strategic-projects-second-list-2026/

## Across the graph
- Related: [[us-minerals-price-floor-allies]], [[ndpr-price-surge-2026]], [[lithium-market-2026-deficit]], [[carney-g7-critical-minerals]]
- Entities: Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, Neodymium, Dysprosium

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