In January 2023, Horizon Europe programme began the funding of MaDiTraCe, a research and innovation project that aims to develop digital and geo-based approaches for environment, social and governance (ESG) standards for critical raw materials (CRM) and to integrate them with a generic certification scheme for CRMs.
The project will run until December 2025.
The purpose of the project is to ensure sustainable and transparent mineral supply chains based on generally accepted ESG standards. The project will be focused on materials essential to energy transition: lithium, cobalt and natural graphite for batteries, and rare eartsh for magnets.
With the recently presented Critical Raw Materials Act in particular, the European Union defines both requirements and measures. CRMs are highly significant for the green and digital transformation and extraction in itself can be unsustainable. Therefore, the EU supports projects which work on establishing these resilient and more sustainable CRM supply chains. The project will run for three years, until December 2025, and has a budget of $16 million (£ 11 million).
The MaDiTraCe digital approach seeks to consider the particularities and complexities of mineral supply chains while minimizing the environmental impact and costs. Numerous aggregation points (mixing of ores of different origins, including artisanal small-scale mining) and transformation (processing) along the mineral supply chains have been recognised as challenges for CRM digitalization.
To learn more, visit www.cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101091502.
Comments