In the energy and digital transitionTHE rare are very important ores, as they are often essential for applications Like permanent magnets (wind turbines, electric vehicles), catalysts, polishing powders and many electronic components (screens, smartphones, etc.). Except that it is the Chine which holds the monopole extraction and treatment of these minerals. And the Middle Empire plays on this dependence with Europe, as with the United States.
It is in this tense context that the MR has just made an astonishing proposal based on a study by its Jean Gol expertise center: reopen the bowels of our floors to exploit these resources which would also be present in quantity if we believe the cartography Strengthened by the study, especially in Wallonia.
A forgotten potential?
The geologist Éric Pirard (Uliège) of the Jean Gol center underlines the forgotten mining potential of the country: Wallonia is much richer geologically than the north of France or the Netherlands and it would house deposits of lead, zinc, manganese, germaniumor even phosphates Around Mons. But he also recalls that we only discover exploitable deposits once in a thousand and that the exploration phases can last up to … twenty years! Conclusion: Before attracting investors, we must first know our soils better.
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A European ambition
This Belgian initiative is part of the wake of Critical Raw Materials Act Europeanwhich sets its members the objective and by 2030 to extract at home 10% of critical metals they consume. And rare earths are obviously concerned. Belgium must therefore, too, quickly put an exploration plan on the move. For the president of the MR, Georges-Louis Bouchezthe exploitation of rare land is comparable to the nuclear revolution: first deemed unrealistic, it is today a strategic priority.
But the MR goes even further in its approach and it also offers to rewrite the Walloon mining code to simplify procedures and attract companies capable of carrying out long -term extraction projects. The MR wants to be reassuring and evokes fully robotic, invisible surface and surface mines with low environmental impact. Which obviously remains to be proven. Because elsewhere in Europe, it is often standoff that oppose the locals to industrialists, as for lithium.
Realistic?
If the MR speaks of a strategic opportunity, one can however wonder if this type of project is realistic, for several reasons. On the one hand there is the cost of labor in Belgium to make these operations not very profitable, but also the environmental costbecause this activity is consuming in water, energy and polluting chemicals. It is not a green speech, just a reality and it means that the processes put in place in Belgium could be much more expensive than those in China. There profitability could become very hypothetical On this type of project.
Furthermore, l’innovation could also thwart this perspective. Because manufacturers of electronics and the automotive sector find solutions to use fewer in fewer rare land, or even more rare earths at all, especially for electric cars engines. So to see if Belgium will reopen mines or not.
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