Published on 25 November, 2025
During Raw Materials Week 2025 in Brussels, the CRM-Facility hosted and co-organized four targeted sessions showcasing concrete investment opportunities, technical insights and emerging partnerships across global critical raw material (CRM) value chains. The events brought together EU and Government officials, industry leaders, researchers and financiers to advance the CRM-Facility’s mission: supporting secure, sustainable and diversified supply chains for Europe.
Uzbekistan: Advancing Tungsten and Molybdenum Cooperation
The session on Critical Raw Materials Investment Opportunities in Uzbekistan highlighted the country’s growing role in tungsten and molybdenum development. Representatives from the European Commission and Uzbekistan’s Technological Metals Complex (TMK) provided strategic perspectives, followed by detailed project presentations and market insights from Project Blue. A new research agreement between TMK and KU Leuven on REE separation further strengthened scientific collaboration.
Kazakhstan: New CRM Project Opportunities for Europe
The KazakhstanCRM- Investment Session introduced a set of advanced CRM projects in graphite, rare earths, manganese and other strategic materials. Companies including Sarytogan, Zhezkazganredmet, Taza Metal Technologies and Ulba Metallurgical Plant presented their work, while the Alphamar CRM Fund outlined financing instruments for early-stage projects. The session demonstrated Kazakhstan’s increasing importance as a strategic partner for Europe.
Frontier Rare Earths: Deep Dive into Zandkopsdrift
A dedicated B2B deep-dive session with Frontier Rare Earths offered participants an extensive technical and financial overview of the Zandkopsdrift rare earth and manganese project. Moderated by Peter T. Jones from KU Leuven, Frontier presented its low-cost HPMSM production potential and its upcoming development milestones, including the definitive feasibility study. Discussions focused on bankability, financing requirements and opportunities for European offtake partnerships.
Global Natural Graphite Projects for European Processing
The CRM-Facility also moderated a specialised session on integrating overseas graphite projects with European value-added processing. Following an overview of Europe’s graphite market by ECGA, six companies from Africa, Central Asia and the Arctic region presented their projects. A multi-stakeholder panel explored how international mining capacity and European processing capabilities can be better aligned to strengthen supply chain resiliency.
Driving European Supply Chain Resilience
Together, these four sessions underscored the CRM-Facility’s growing role as a platform for connecting global project developers with European industrial and financial actors. Across tungsten, molybdenum, rare earths, manganese and natural graphite, the discussions revealed strong momentum for new collaborations — supporting Europe’s effort to diversify supply and accelerate the development of responsible, sustainable CRM value chains.
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