Input to the European Critical Raw Materials Act
To achieve the green and digital transitions, the EU must significantly increase and diversify its critical raw materials supply, strengthen circularity and support research and innovation.
GCE Ocean Technology is one of 310 actors, who have provided input to EU.
We have pointed out the untapped potential within deep sea minerals, which can strongly strengthen the diversification of the EU supply sources and we believe deep-sea minerals can come with a strong environmental and social performance.
Accelerate deep sea innovation and research
There are still unknowns related to the deep-sea environment and impacts of possible deep-sea mining operations. We believe these are best addressed in a joint public-private collaboration where industry and researcher are working closely together, such as in the Eco-Safe Ridge Mining Project.
Furthmore, we propose increased EU-funding and joint programmes to accelerate the understanding of the deep-sea ecosystem and its minerals resources, so this can be explored as a source of diversification of the supply of critical minerals in a responsible way.
Supporting the opening process
Deep-sea minerals contain huge amounts of critical minerals for the energy transition such as copper, cobalt, manganese, nickel, zink and certain REEs.
We support the stepwise approach suggested by the Norwegian government and believe this can be adopted in Europe and internationally.
Contact Information
European Critical Raw Materials Act
Raw materials are crucial to Europe’s economy.
They form a strong industrial base, producing a broad range of goods and applications used in everyday life and modern technologies.
Reliable and unhindered access to certain raw materials is a growing concern within the EU and across the globe.
To address this challenge, the European Commission has created a list of critical raw materials (CRMs) for the EU, which is subject to a regular review and update.
CRMs combine raw materials of high importance to the EU economy and of high risk associated with their supply.
