A European Entity for Critical Raw Materials

Mining is one business and reaching the European market is another. The gap between them is where the Critical Raw Materials Act now operates, and it has quietly become one of the strongest reasons for a producer outside the Union to hold a European entity.

Strategic Projects reach beyond the Union

The mechanism that carries the Act is the Strategic Project. The first collection drew 170 applications and produced 60 designations: 47 within the European Union and 13 in third countries and overseas territories. The third-country list includes South Africa, Madagascar, Malawi and Zambia alongside Canada, Brazil, Norway, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. A second call closed with more than 160 further applications.

Designation brings guidance on private and public funding, attention from the financing hub established under the RESource Action Plan which mobilises European Union funds and the European Investment Bank, and greater certainty for potential off-takers. The 13 third-country projects together represent an estimated 5.5 billion euro of investment to reach operation.

The assessment criteria repay close reading. Projects demonstrate their contribution to European supply security, and the Commission names one route explicitly: concluding off-take agreements with European downstream industries. Alongside that sit environmental, social and governance standards, technical feasibility, and mutual benefit for the third country concerned.

Where a European entity earns its place

Four things become materially easier with an establishment inside the Union.

Off-take agreements

European industrial buyers contract more readily with a European counterparty. Jurisdiction, enforcement, VAT treatment and payment mechanics all simplify, and a supply commitment signed with an entity subject to European law reads differently in a buyer's risk committee than the same commitment signed offshore.

European financing

Public and private European finance flows toward structures it recognises. A European entity holding receivables from European buyers reaches trade finance on European terms, which for many producers is a wider gap than the mining margin itself. The Netherlands adds its own development finance institution and export credit infrastructure to that picture.

Joint ventures with European partners

Where a European industrial takes a position in a project, the joint venture vehicle sits in a jurisdiction both sides accept. Our guide to joint venture structures sets out why that vehicle is so often Dutch.

Capturing the trading margin

Producers selling at the mine gate leave the trading margin with intermediaries. An own European trading arm keeps it. See a commodity trading entity in the Netherlands.

Partnerships already in place

The European Union has concluded strategic partnerships on raw materials value chains with Namibia in 2022, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia in 2023, and Rwanda in 2024, alongside a Clean Trade and Investment Partnership with South Africa. Projects located in partner countries carry an advantage in the Strategic Project assessment, and the partnerships bring political and financial attention with them.

Where CBAM fits, and where it stays out

A distinction worth holding onto. The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism covers processed goods: cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen. Ores and concentrates sit outside it. A producer exporting bauxite, copper concentrate or spodumene meets the critical raw materials framework rather than the carbon one.

That changes the moment refining enters the picture. As African beneficiation advances and concentrate becomes refined metal, the same producer enters CBAM scope. Our guide to an EU entity for CBAM covers that stage, and building the European structure before it arrives is considerably calmer than building it afterwards.

Your Dutch entity in practice

A Dutch BV is incorporated by notarial deed and registered with the Chamber of Commerce, with your group holding the shares and incorporation running remotely by power of attorney. From there the entity takes on whichever functions the strategy calls for: off-take counterparty, trading arm, joint venture vehicle, holding company for a group of operating subsidiaries, or importer of record.

Two points settle early. Substance in the Netherlands supports every one of those functions, so bookkeeping held here and decisions taken here are part of the design rather than an afterthought. And banking for commodity flows from African jurisdictions asks more of the onboarding process than a standard European trading company, which is why we open that conversation in parallel with the incorporation.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Strategic Project under the Critical Raw Materials Act?

A project that makes a meaningful contribution to the security of the Union's supply of strategic raw materials, is technically feasible within a reasonable timeframe and is implemented sustainably. Designation brings guidance on funding, attention from the financing hub mobilising EU funds and the European Investment Bank, and greater certainty for off-takers.

Can a project outside the EU obtain Strategic Project status?

Yes. The first selection round designated 13 Strategic Projects in third countries and overseas territories, including South Africa, Madagascar, Malawi and Zambia. A second call closed with more than 160 further applications.

What are the 2030 benchmarks in the Critical Raw Materials Act?

For each strategic raw material, the European Union aims to extract ten percent of annual consumption within the Union, process forty percent, source twenty-five percent from recycled material, and hold dependence on any single third country to sixty-five percent or below.

Why would an African producer establish an entity in Europe?

Four reasons recur: contracting off-take agreements with European industry as a European counterparty, reaching European trade finance and public financing on European terms, providing a jurisdiction both sides accept for joint ventures with European partners, and capturing the trading margin that otherwise sits with intermediaries.

Does CBAM apply to ore exports?

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism covers processed goods: cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen. Ores and concentrates sit outside it. Once beneficiation turns concentrate into refined metal, the producer enters CBAM scope.