To achieve the goals of the EU Green Deal, the call for additional mineral raw materials is a harsh reality, which requires a renewed search for EU-based sources of raw materials

The search for new sources of raw materials, in particular, Critical Raw Materials, is conditioned by emergent technologies and economic factors. Raw Materials are considered “critical” when their supply risk and economic impact are considered high relative to others raw materials. The criticality of Critical Raw Materials depend on several geological, political, and technical factors.

They are commodities that have important uses and are essential for defence, renewable energy, and many other industries. A raw material that may have been considered critical years ago may not be critical now, and one considered critical now may be less so in the future.

As of September 2020, Europe has considered 30 resources as Critical Raw Materials, three more than in 2017. In this latest list, four more resources were added, namely bauxite, lithium, titanium and strontium, and for the first time and helium was removed from the list. Historically, the list of Critical Raw Materials in 2011 considered 14 resources while in 2014, 20 resources.

This “Critical Raw Materials Deposits in Mainland Portugal” map is a compilation of the known occurrences and deposits that contain some of the CRM according to the latest list published in September 2020.