Greece appears to have been ready for some time to support the EU’s ambitious plan for autonomy in critical raw materials.
Following Metlen’s gallium investment in Viotia, which the EU included in the list of a total of 47 projects for its strategic autonomy in 2025, Greece is expanding its presence in the most geopolitically important sector of critical raw materials with five more proposals. They embrace the entire value chain, mining – recycling, with three of them having successfully passed the technical evaluation stage, Kathimerini understands.
The first one is the copper-gold production project of Eldorado Gold at Skouries in Halkidiki, with an expected output of 30,000 tons of copper per year for 20 years. Construction at the Halkidiki mining complex is more than 94% complete and its commercial operation is expected within 2026. This is an investment that exceeds $2 billion.
Thrace Minerals’ Sapes mining project is focused on gold and copper as a by-product, representing a new mineral front in northeastern Greece.
The Peloponnese is also actively entering the “track” of critical raw material extraction with the Molaoi Critical Mineral project of Australian company Rockfire Resources in Laconia, opening a new geographical node on the mineral map of the country. The Australians’ surveys in the Molaoi deposit have identified germanium, which, as a representative announced on Thursday, could cover up to 50% of EU needs.
