The Netherlands is expanding its role in Europe’s critical raw-materials industry through four recycling projects selected as Strategic Projects under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) in October 2026. The initiatives target battery materials, copper, aluminium and electronic waste, covering several stages of secondary-metal recovery without relying on primary mineral extraction.
The selected projects are Back to Battery in Delft, Mitsubishi Materials Europe’s 3ECYCLE in Amsterdam, Myne Circular Metals in Harderwijk and CRITICAL.’s Urban Mining Factory for printed circuit boards. Together, they cover different waste streams and material-recovery processes within the European recycling industry.
Four projects target different secondary raw materials
Back to Battery is developing a scalable refining process for battery black mass, targeting the recovery of lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite.
Mitsubishi Materials Europe plans to process electronic scrap through its proposed 3ECYCLE facility, recovering copper and other valuable metals. The Japanese parent company is applying technologies developed through decades of non-ferrous smelting and recycling, with the project forming part of its wider strategy to expand the circular use of secondary resources.
Myne Circular Metals focuses on recovering aluminium and copper, while CRITICAL.’s Urban Mining Factory is designed to extract industrial metals from discarded printed circuit boards, one of the more complex feedstocks handled by electronics recycling operations.
Logistics and industrial infrastructure support Dutch recycling
The Netherlands is not a major European mining jurisdiction, but its logistics network, trading activity, ports and industrial infrastructure provide a basis for processing secondary raw materials. Its position within a densely interconnected regional economy also offers access to goods moving through European supply chains.
Electronic waste, batteries and metal scrap require collection, transport, sorting, storage and processing before recovered materials can return to manufacturing. The Dutch projects illustrate how a country without significant mineral deposits can participate in the critical-raw-materials value chain through infrastructure and material recovery.
The location requirements for recycling facilities differ from those of conventional mines. While a mine must be developed where a deposit occurs, recycling plants can be located according to feedstock availability, collection density, port access, energy supply, permitting, workforce skills and proximity to customers.
CRITICAL. expands its urban-mining portfolio
CRITICAL.’s planned printed-circuit-board facility is designed to process approximately 15,000 tonnes annually. The company is also developing a separate solar-panel recycling project in Germany with a target capacity of 20,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to as many as one million end-of-life panels.
These projects address different material streams and recovery requirements, from electronic components to photovoltaic modules. The wider urban-mining model also encompasses batteries, magnets, motors and industrial residues, with recovered materials potentially consolidated before transfer to specialist refining facilities.
The Dutch project cluster demonstrates how logistics and access to recyclable feedstock can influence the location of critical-raw-materials infrastructure. As recycling capacity expands, industrial and transport centres can become important sources of secondary metals alongside conventional mining districts.
