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Europe’s renewable energy and semiconductor industries depend heavily on the import of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs), making their supply chains very vulnerable to geopolitical risks, shortages, and price volatility. However, due to the lack of integrated Urban Mining capacity, most of these materials remain unrecovered from electric, electronic and industrial waste. CRITICAL. was founded in2024 with the goal to address this dependency, by digging much deeper into waste streams and recovering more CRMs.
By 2030, Germany alone will generate 400.000 - 1.000.000 tonnes/year of End-of-Life Solar Panels, with no large-scale Critical Raw Materials recovery solutions in place. Source: Fraunhofer ISE, 2024
Over 1.3 Million tonnes of e-waste (including Solar Panels and Printed Circuit Boards) are exported from the EU annually, often to regions with lower recovery standards. Source: Eurostat, 2025
Less than 5% of low-grade Waste Printed Circuit Boards are processed within Europe, due to insufficient refining capacity. Source: WEEE Forum, 2025
The EU loses € 5–10 Billion/year (€ 7,5 on average) in potential material value from unrecycled e-waste, including CRMs like Copper, and Rare Earths. Source: European Environment Agency, 2025
Our urban Mining Platform is an integrated industrial model, connecting specialized Urban Mining Factories (UMFs) across Europe through shared material flows, recovery infrastructure and refining capacity. We are both developer and operator of the platform. Copper functions as the central material stream, while additional Critical Raw Materials — including Gallium, Neodymium and other elements — are consolidated and directed toward our specialized refining hubs for further processing. This integrated approach enables economies of scale in refining, improves infrastructure utilization and strengthens the long-term availability of Critical Raw Materials for European manufacturing, semiconductor and strategic industrial sector.
Urban Mining Factory / Solar Panels
Location: Frankenberg (Eder), GermanyFeedstock: End-of-Life Solar PanelsCapacity: 20.000 tonnes/year capacityElements: Ag, Al, Cu, Fe, Ga, Pb, Si-metal, Sn
Urban Mining Factory / Printed Circuit Boards
Location: Rotterdam, NetherlandsFeedstock: Low-grade Waste Printed Circuit BoardsCapacity: 15.000 tonnes/year capacityElements: Ag, Au, Al, B, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Pd, Pt, Sn
Urban Mining Factory / Fly Ashes
Location: Amsterdam, NetherlandsFeedstock: Fly Ashes from Municipal Waste IncinerationCapacity: 6.000 tonnes/year capacityElements: Cu, Zn, Ni, etc.
Urban Mining Factory / Electric Motors
Location: Moerdijk, NetherlandsFeedstock: End-of-Life Electric MotorsCapacity: 10.000 tonnes/year capacityElements: Al, B, Fe, Cu, Nd, Ni, Mn
You can contribute to building Europe’s integrated Urban Mining Platform platform by: • Investing;• Supply of e-waste;• Offtake of materials;• Technology transfer;• Accelerating permitting;• Policy alignment;• Connecting us. Let's strengthen Europe's supply chain resilience together!
Amongst others:
