AfricaMaVal
Securing Access To Mineral Resources in the Best Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Conditions
Securing the access to mineral resources represents a crucial strategic issue for Europe’s ambitions to deliver the Green Deal and perform the energy and digital twin transition. As future demand of primary critical raw materials will continue to be largely met by imports, the EU needs to diversify its supply chain and engage in strategic partnerships with resource-rich third countries covering extraction, processing and refining.
AfricaMaVal aims at developing EU-Africa partnerships ensuring responsible sourcing of minerals for the European industry while providing for a sustainable local co-development in the best environmental, social and governance (ESG) conditions and creating a long-term prolific business environment for European and African companies.
DURATION: 2022 – 2026
SCOPE: Europe, Africa
FOCUS AREA: Resource Extraction
FUNDED BY: European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA)
The Need to Secure Access to CRMs
Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) combine raw materials of high economic importance and of high-risks associated with their supply. Since the notion depends both on the availability of the substance and on its economic importance, it varies throughout the years. The European Commission has created a list of critical raw materials (CRMs) for the EU, which is subject to review and update every three years. The fourth list of CRMs is available on the European Commission website.
AfricaMaVal focuses on the minerals and metals present in the fourth list of CRMs for the EU as well as on Copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni), Tin (Sn) and Manganese (Mn) that are particularly pertinent considering Africa’s geological potential and their critical status in the digital and energy twin transitions.
Project Objectives
Sustainable EU-Africa partnerships
Stimulate the co-development of a EU and Africa partnership in the raw materials sector.
Responsible sourcing
Sustainable investments
AfricaMaVal's Approach
To build such partnership in a sustainable manner, the AfricaMaVal project relies on the 7 steps as detailed below. Due to the high relevance of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining sector (ASSM) for livelihoods and local development in Africa, a specific attention is being placed on integrating this sector along our different project’s steps. And additionally, a 8th step focusing on Communication and Dissemination is supporting the project’s implementation.
In-Depth Case Studies For 10 Countries
During the project, in-depth case studies will be developed for 10 countries, selected due to their mining and refining potential, and existing links with several EU countries.
