On 16 March 2023, the European Commission published its long-awaited Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) to ensure secure and sustainable supply chains for the EU’s green and digital future. The CRMA sets “clear benchmarks for domestic capacities along the strategic raw-materials supply chain and to diversify EU supply by 2030: at least 10% of the EU’s annual consumption for extraction, at least 40% of the EU’s annual consumption for processing, at least 15% of the EU’s annual consumption for recycling, and not more than 65% of annual consumption at any relevant stage of processing from a single third country.”
Through the domestic extraction of two CRMs in AVANTIS – vanadium (V) and titanium (Ti) – metal we address the first target of the CRMA (i.e., > 10% domestic extraction for V and Ti) with a positive spill-over to the fourth target (i.e., < 65% dependence on a specific third country). AVANTIS will also produce additional CRMs in the form of by-products.
Why V and Ti? Despite being included in previous versions of the EC CRM list, V and Ti received far less attention than other CRMs such as the battery raw materials Li and Co, or the light/heavy rare-earth elements (L/HREEs) that have been central to many H2020 and HE calls and funded projects. However, the situation for V and Ti is no different to that of the “popular” CRMs (Li, Co, (L/H)REEs): there is no domestic V or (refined) Ti metal production in the EU, making the EU critically dependent on imports.
As China and Russia dominate the global supply chains for V and Ti metal, they also have a stranglehold over supplies needed by EU industry. With the demand for V set to increase rapidly given the fact that V is an up-andcoming battery material for stationary energy storage (all V Redox Flow Batteries VRFBs ) the 65% threshold set by the EC could soon be crossed if no action is taken. Unsurprisingly, the EC has now highlighted both elements as CRMs because of their high supply risk combined with economic importance for the EU bloc.
The EU is 100% import reliant for Ti (metal), with a strong dependency on China and Russia. For V, this IR could not be calculated by the EC, although it is clearly also very high (once more, China and Russia are the dominant players).
There is no primary V extraction in the EU at present, although there are plans in Finland to recover V from steelmaking slags from 2026. It is estimated that for 2016-2021 the EU imported 1.5 Mt/y Ti (incl. TiO2 pigment, Ti metal) and 12.7 kt/y V. The good news is that, based on known domestic resources, the EU can supply its growing needs for V and Ti.
At present the only large-scale primary extraction of Ti-bearing minerals in geographical Europe is happening in Rogaland province in Norway, where AVANTIS partner Titania AS operates the Tellnes mine, a high-grade ilmenite mine of the magmatic type (grading 18 wt% TiO2, as present in ilmenite, FeTiO3). The Tellnes deposit was discovered in 1954, with production starting in 1960. Tellnes is an open-pit mine, producing 580 kt/y of ilmenite concentrate (data by Geological Survey of Norway8) that is sold for downstream processing. It is one of the largest Ti deposits in the world. There is currently no Ti metal production in Europe.
The high-grade Tellnes ilmenite mine where ilmenite is the main ore mineral and is easy to extract is not representative of the other Ti deposits in Europe, or even the rest of the world. The global reserves of Ti-rich oxide minerals such as ilmenite (FeTiO3) and rutile (TiO2) are about 62 and 880 million tonnes, respectively, while the global reserves of vanadiferous/V-bearing titanomagnetite deposits are 58 billion tonnes: i.e., far more than the reserves of the deposits where Ti is extracted from Ti-rich oxides (ilmenite and rutile). However, at present there is no commercial co-valorising of V and Ti from V-bearing titanomagnetite [Ti-V-Fe-(P)] deposits.
Europe has a multitude of unexploited, low-grade V-bearing titanomagnetite deposits in Finland, Sweden, Greenland, Norway, Poland and Ukraine. However, these deposits have a complex “spiderweb-like” mineral assemblage. Without selective blasting, selective fragmentation and pre-concentration technologies to separate the Ti-rich ilmenite grains from the V-bearing magnetite, these deposits are not economically viable. Supported by a bespoke forensic geometallurgy, AVANTIS will develop a novel selective-blasting approach that allows for rock excavation with increased mineral liberation at the blasting stage, and reduced energy demand in the crushing and grinding stages. Likewise, AVANTIS designs tailored, water-free and water-lean pre-concentration technologies that can produce two distinct pre-concentrates:
