EU Launches Mineral Traceability Project – MaDiTraCe

With regulatory frameworks on critical raw materials (CRMs) high on the European economic and political agenda, the European Union has launched the project ‘MaDiTraCe’ (material and digital traceability for the certification of critical raw materials).

The project is funded by the Horizon Europe programme and coordinated by BRGM (Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières), France’s leading public institution for earth science applications for managing surface and sub-surface resources. The project aims to provide efficient and standardised certification systems that guarantee transparent insights into mineral supply chains.

This approach considers the complexities of mineral supply chains while minimising their environmental impact and costs. The digitalisation of mineral supply chains involves numerous aggregation points (mixing of ores of different origins, including small-scale artisanal mining) and transformation steps (processing, refining). With a budget of €11 million, the project will run until December 2025.

It will combine 14 partners from seven countries to develop and integrate technological solutions for traceability and certification into a digital product passport. These solutions will enable key industry players to prove the reliability of their sustainability claims, comply with current regulations, and anticipate future policies. The project will focus on the materials essential to the energy transition, such as cobalt, lithium, natural graphite for batteries, and rare earth magnets.

Critical Raw Materials Act

With the recently presented Critical Raw Materials Act, the EU defines requirements and measures. The Act sets lower limits on the bloc’s domestic capacity for the extraction, processing, and recycling of such materials by 2030.

Crucially, the legislation also mandates that by the same year, a third country should provide at most 65% of the bloc’s annual consumption of each strategic raw material. Currently, 98% of the EU’s supply of rare earth elements comes from China, while 78% of its lithium – an essential component of making batteries – comes from Chile.

The Act noted that the extraction of CRMs could be more sustainable, and that Europe heavily relies on imports from third countries. Therefore, the MaDiTraCe project seeks to establish resilient and sustainable CRM supply chains that meet the Critical Raw Materials Act requirements.

Companies are also facing increased pressure to responsibly extract, process responsibly and source materials, as initiatives such as the EU Battery regulation and the EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence come into force. This makes standardised certification schemes, transparent and secure traceability, and decentralised confidential data handling imperative.

For more information, visit www.maditrace.eu/about.