Legislators urged to address mining waste as EU production quota looms

With targets to ramp up raw material extraction across Europe, policymakers are urged to address the problem of mining waste.

With EU law requiring at least 10% critical raw materials deemed crucial for the energy transition to be sourced within the bloc by 2030, policy makers need urgently to legislate for the safe disposal of growing volumes of mining waste, environmental campaigners have warned.
A legal analysis commissioned by the campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) calls on the next European Commission, currently under formation, to revise the laws on extractive waste, warning of a “significant risk of fragmentation” of regulation from one country to the next if nothing is done.
Under the recently adopted Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), the EU has set itself the goal of extract 10% of raw materials such as lithium, essential to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). Europe currently relies entirely on imports, notably from China, for its supplies of some of the 34 elements identified as critical for Europe’s energy transition and security.
The group is calling on the upcoming Commission to revise the 2006 Extractive Waste Directive, in particular replacing it with a Regulation, which under EU law would apply directly in all EU member states, rather than giving governments a certain leeway in how to achieve its aim when transposing the rules into their domestic legislation.
This approach – which the Commission adopted for a revision of EU law on battery production and disposal, among other Green Deal policy initiatives – would ensure harmonisation of rules across Europe, T&E argue, noting that demand created by the CRMA is set to drive investment in extracting minerals from disused mine or mining waste.
“With the Critical Raw Materials Act also opening the door to remining in Europe, it is the right moment to strengthen European rules on waste for new mines and use the opportunity to integrate rules on remining,” the group said in a briefing accompanying the report.
T&E also notes the law is silent on the issue of liability and damages in the event of accidents, and unclear on how governments should monitor and limit environmental impacts. The Commission should “mandate companies to implement the safest tailings storage and monitoring techniques”, the Brussels-based NGO umbrella group argues.
“While Europe often claims to have the highest environmental and social standards globally, this cannot be said for its mining waste rules,” T&E said in a statement published on Tuesday (27 August), adding that increased scrutiny would also reassure communities living close to mining sites. The importance of public opinion has been thrown into stark relief in recent years with vehement protests against lithium mines in Portugal and Serbia. 
The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) — a platform of mining companies, buyers, investors, community groups, unions and environmental and human rights NGOs — launched in 2018 a voluntary global certification programme for operators of mines and believes its approach could serve as a model for EU legislators.
“Mine waste can put communities and their water at risk for decades after a mine is closed,” Aimee Boulanger, IRMA’s executive director told Euronews. “The IRMA standard sets an example for policymakers, and reflects increasing expectations, to protect the safety of people living closest to the site, Indigenous rights holders, workers, and the environment on which they depend.”
Despite the ongoing protests in Serbia against the government’s renewed support for Anglo-Australian conglomerate Rio Tinto to extract lithium in the Jadar region, thought to contain some of Europe’s largest reserves, the EU executive reiterated last week its commitment to a recently signed strategic partnership with Belgrade.
“I don’t think we can quantify the importance of the memorandum of understanding with Serbia,” the Commission’s spokesperson on trade Johanna Bernsel told reporters after president Ursula von der Leyen said securing access to cheap raw materials would be a key goal of the Clean Industrial Deal, the flagship policy agenda for her second mandate.