More than half of the 33 planned new or expanded mines designated as strategic projects under the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act are located in areas that have been drying over the past two decades, according to analysis by Watershed Investigations using NASA satellite data — a finding that has alarmed environmental groups as the European Commission prepares to revise the bloc's flagship water protection law to speed up mining permitting
Nearly half of the strategic mines are in zones that experienced drought conditions in the past three months according to EU data, and a quarter are in regions deemed water-stressed Six of the strategic mines are planned for highly water-stressed areas in Spain, with others in Portugal and Greece — countries that rank among the top ten EU nations with the worst water scarcity according to the European Environment Agency
