Since the Critical Raw Materials Act entered into force in May 2024, Brussels has designated 60 Strategic Projects, promised 27-month permitting clocks, and talked about a 2030 target of extracting 10% and processing 40% of the EU’s strategic mineral needs domestically. Five years on from when this push began in earnest, the scoreboard looks nothing like the policy slide decks. A handful of projects are pouring concrete and closing financings. A larger number are stuck in court, in administration, or on care and maintenance. And the pattern separating the two groups has surprisingly little to do with permits.
Here is what actually happened, project by project, and what it says about the four things that really decide whether a European mine gets built: geology risk, permitting, financing, and offtake. It is also, not coincidentally, the exact question MINEX Europe 2026’s opening session, Beyond Legislation — Can Europe Rebuild Its Mining Industry?, puts to the room on day one: has the CRMA changed anything real, or mainly the paperwork?
