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Building EU-Africa partnerships on sustainable raw materials value chain

Project description

EU-Africa partnership for raw materials responsible sourcing

It is important for the EU to establish strategic partnerships with third countries, particularly African nations. For example, it is important to secure its supply chain of primary critical raw materials crucial for energy and digital twin transition. The EU-funded AfricaMaVal project will develop a responsible and sustainable EU-Africa partnership for sourcing mineral resources for the European industry. It will focus on creating a mutually beneficial environment that prioritises environmental, social and governance standards and results in long-term business opportunities for both European and African companies. The project will study the mineral, financial, environmental, social, institutional and economic aspects of all the value chains, including the ASSM activities. It will conduct 10 case studies in African countries and evaluate 100 investment opportunities to ensure sustainable codevelopment.

Objective

Secure the access to raw materials represents a critical issue for European ambition to deliver the Green Deal and perform the energy and digital twin transition. As future demand of primary critical raw materials will continue to be largely met by importations, EU needs to diversify its supply chain and engage strategic partnerships with resources-rich third countries covering extraction, processing and refining such as African countries. In this framework, AfricaMaVal project aims to develop EU-Africa partnership ensuring a responsible sourcing of mineral resources for the European industry while granting a sustainable local co-development in the best Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) conditions and leading to a long-terms business environment for European and African companies.
The consortium, created with partners coming both from Africa and Europe, is based on experienced organizations and networks deeply anchored and involved in the raw material domain with a specific expertise and knowledge of the African culture, organisations, difficulties and resources.
The mineral, financial, environmental, social, institutional and economical aspects will be studied along with all the value chains, including the ASSM activities, to the project completion to reach its operational targets:

- Building an EU and Africa business networking on the whole CRM value chains.
- Developing a strategy on the integration of identified and emerging EU and African raw materials value chains for the energy and digital transition.
- Assessing responsible investment opportunities.

The AfricaMaVal project will conduct ten case studies in African countries and an evaluation of 100 investment opportunities, a wide dissemination within Europe and Africa to promote responsible sourcing and will implement a sustainable organisation after the completion of the project.

Coordinator

BUREAU DE RECHERCHES GEOLOGIQUES ET MINIERES
Net EU contribution
€ 1 795 277,50
Address
3 AV CLAUDE GUILLEMIN
45060 Orleans
France

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Region
Centre — Val de Loire Centre — Val de Loire Loiret
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
€ 1 795 277,50

Participants (13)

Partners (3)