European Commission eyes law change to allow water‑intensive critical‑minerals mines

The EU prepares to rewrite its key law protecting rivers, groundwater + wetlands. The Commission says it's to remove 'bottlenecks' slowing critical minerals mining. Campaigners say the EU has "not presented a shred of evidence" water protections cause 'bottlenecks': share.google/GUSJwy4eJPkh...

Yet more evidence the idea the UK is out on its own pursuing climate action is palpably ridiculous. This week alone there's been a massive Amazon wind farm deal in Germany, hugely ambitious electric truck targets in China, and G7 action on critical minerals. www.businessgreen.com/news-analysi...

1/ G7 countries have agreed that no single country should supply more than 60% of their imports of critical minerals by 2030 in a effort to reduce their reliance on China www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

‘It’s Russian roulette’: Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed areas and plans to rewrite water laws to speed up development Story: share.google/Gdw3DhAYhI5s... Map: watershedinvestigations.com/find-out-wha...

‘It’s Russian roulette’: alarm as Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed regions Exclusive: European Commission planning to rewrite key law to allow water-intensive mines in regions suffering from drought www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The mining industry is at the forefront of the attack on EU environmental laws (alongside intensive farming, chemicals & pharma). Interesting they claim all their projects are sustainable, but also cannot proceed without allowing deterioration of water resources www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Moscow noting developments. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail told local newspaper Izvestia in May that Moscow was concerned by intense U.S. activity around critical minerals & rare earths in Central Asia, portraying it as an effort to push Russia out of a region it treats as a sphere of interest.’

Thank you to Rare Earth Exchanges for covering our latest briefing, detailing 🇪🇺 exposure to 🇨🇳 rare earth minerals. The EU must accelerate efforts to diversify sources of critical minerals, and explicitly name China in its Critical Raw Materials Act. rareearthexchanges.com/news/hong-ko...

In his #ACM2026 insight @tobiasgehrke.bsky.social highlighted that Europe is facing growing economic coercion—not just from China, but increasingly from the US as well. Critical minerals, technology access, supply chains, finance, and market access are becoming geopolitical tools.

In addition to contacting your local MLA, also write to Pete Davis, who serves as the official Critic for Mining and Critical Minerals. He is well positioned to raise questions around corporate ethics, foreign advisor appointments, and accountability within B.C.’s mining sector.

We wrote about this massive increase in government funding for critical minerals projects in the US and abroad, tied to hawkish notions of supply chain security here phenomenalworld.org/analysis/tru...

duplicative anything offends and wounds me for efficiency reasons and i still cannot hear “just-in-case” without hissing. but there may be headway on so-called critical minerals as there is a very natural “(explaining to a canadian) imagine a mining company,” here

At some point, the people in power will realize that when ecosystems collapse then economies collapse too. They'll almost certainly realize it too late. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Couldn't agree more! This company needs to be closely scrutinized!! Please contact the Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals, Honourable @jagrupbrar.bsky.social

I'm including my provincial Premiere David Eby and PM Carney in my communications to NovaRed Mining as they are undoubtedly looped in on this process. There is no doubt in my mind that restructuring identified by NovaRed is linked in some way to the Federal Governments' Critical Minerals Strategy.