EU, Australia ink deal on critical, strategic minerals

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – The EU Commission announced on Tuesday that the 27-member bloc has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Australia to form a bilateral partnership to work on sustainable critical and strategic minerals.

The partnership aims to enable the EU to diversify its supplies of materials required for the green and digital transitions, it said in a statement.

"The partnership covers the entire critical and strategic minerals value chain: exploration, extraction, processing, refining, recycling, and processing of extractive waste," it added.

It noted: "In addition to jointly developing projects along the entire value chain in the EU and in Australia, the partnership will also explore cooperation in countries where the EU and Australia have mutual interests, focusing on reducing environmental impacts and benefiting local communities."

The partnership's main goals include the integration of sustainable raw materials value chains, collaboration on research and innovation along raw materials value chains, and cooperation to promote high environmental, social, and governance standards and practices, the commission said.

"The signature of the MoU provides a framework to build secure and sustainable critical and strategic minerals value chains between the EU and Australia," it added.