The Iberian Sustainable Mining Cluster (ISMC), through the MINE.THE.GAP H2020 project funded by the European Union, is organising an investment event in raw materials on 1 June at the Hotel Emperador in Madrid, coordinated by its director general, Santiago Cuesta López, who will be accompanied by senior European officials such as Madalina Ivanica, Deputy Director in the unit of the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission.

The event “European investment forum for raw materials” aims to find solutions and business and institutional synergies that serve as a basis for solving the problem of supply of critical raw materials to European industry. To this end, it will hold a series of sessions where global investment experts will present the barriers that mining projects frequently face, providing lessons learned from around the world that the European Union may have the opportunity to apply.

The conference will be divided into three areas that will revolve around the value chain of raw materials, strategic resources and the agents involved as vital elements for the transformation of the sector, “as a starting point, the global framework and the outlook for the sector, analysing investment mechanisms, and in a second session, various round tables on the keys to geopolitics, raw materials and technological dependence”, explained Cuesta López.

The importance of geopolitics and the international context will be a key point on the agenda, where experts from the Ministry of Defence and international figures such as Sebastián Contín of AsiaGlobal Fellow – the University of Hong Kong and Brian Wong will debate, moderated by Jesús Morales, journalist and deputy director of 20MINUTOS.

In addition, a round table will be held to present success stories in the implementation and development of raw materials projects worldwide and to present the latest technologies applied to the extraction of raw materials in a sustainable way, by leading companies such as Técnicas Reunidas, Silver-X, Minas de Alquife and the Federation of Mining Companies of the Kingdom of Morocco.

Finally, there will be a session on business opportunities and synergies between investors and leading technology-based companies, “presenting cutting-edge projects that are fundamental for a transition towards digital and sustainable mining in Europe and worldwide”, said Cuesta López. In addition, “the political barriers and institutional investment mechanisms that can facilitate the acquisition of advanced cutting-edge technologies in a sector that will be strategic for the EU economy in the coming years should be analysed”, he stressed.

The day will end with the presentation of products and services from international SMEs highly specialised in sustainable mining technologies, which will be made available to companies and investors.

This raw materials investment forum is presented as an essential meeting for dialogue in which a “joint model will be proposed to halt the international energy and raw materials crisis, which requires urgent and sustainable solutions, focusing strategically on industry and the technological system”, said Cuesta López.