In Europe, a completely new approach to resource extraction will be used, based on people and green technologies.
Only the automotive sector will require large supplies of lithium, nickel, copper and rare earth elements, as automakers are moving from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles (electric vehicles).
That is why the continent, which has a long history of mining, is working to ensure that the new wave of resource development uses lessons learned from countries such as Canada and Australia.
The miners in these countries have already encountered problems at the local and foreign levels when dealing with the expectations of local communities and governments, although the “magic formula” has not yet been achieved.
“We have to distinguish between utopia and vision,” says Wolfgang Reimer, managing director of Geokompetenzzentrum Freiberg, a German non-governmental organization that is part of a pan-European group that is developing the basis for acquiring a social business license (SOL) in Europe.
