Joint Statement – Energy-Intensive Industries – Middle East crisis Temporary State aid Framework (METSAF) prolongation

Joint statement on the Middle East crisis Temporary State aid Framework (METSAF) prolongation

Energy-intensive industries are at a critical juncture. They underpin Europe’s most strategic value chains, supplying the materials essential to the energy transition, defence, and digital transformation – and they are accelerating their decarbonisation efforts. But they cannot electrify and decarbonise without access to electricity at globally competitive prices.

Access to internationally competitive electricity is a prerequisite for maintaining industrial production in Europe and attracting future investment. For many energy-intensive industries, electricity is not merely an input cost but a key determinant of competitiveness. Consequently, higher power prices translate directly into a competitiveness disadvantage, with European companies facing electricity prices up to two to three times higher than those of their US and Chinese competitors.

In light of the announced prolongation of METSAF, it is important to understand that to date no system across Europe has been enacted to support energy-intensive industries under METSAF due to specific design flaws. We would like to share three recommendations to ensure that the framework effectively responds to the challenges we are facing.

  • Align cumulation and eligible consumption thresholds with METSAF’s 70% support level

To fully achieve METSAF’s objective while remaining consistent with the Commission’s own ‘horizontal’ calibration logic1, the Commission should align the framework’s key parameters with its 70% aid intensity. In particular, the current 50% limits on the aid amount in the case of the cumulation of METSAF with ETS indirect cost compensation (par. 74(b)) and on eligible electricity consumption (CISAF par. 120) should be increased to 70%. It would ensure that the industries most exposed to electricity costs and international competition can effectively benefit from the enhanced support level that METSAF was specifically designed to provide.

METSAF rightly recognised that the exceptional electricity cost burden faced by energy-intensive industries due to the Middle East crisis requires a higher level of support than that available under Section 4.5 of CISAF. To this end, METSAF increased the level of allowed electricity price relief from 50% to 70% of the relevant yearly average wholesale electricity price.

However, key elements of the framework remain calibrated at 50%, notably the share of eligible electricity consumption covered by the mechanism and the share of aid that may be cumulated with compensation for indirect ETS costs. As a result, the very industries that the EU has recognised as being most exposed to electricity costs and carbon leakage risks through their eligibility for indirect cost compensation cannot fully benefit from the enhanced support level introduced by METSAF.

This targeted adjustment would not alter the fundamental architecture of METSAF but would ensure that the framework delivers the level of support that the Commission itself considered necessary under the exceptional market circumstances that justified its adoption.

  • Remove the 50% reinvestment obligation in decarbonisation

The Commission should remove the requirement that beneficiaries allocate at least 50% of the aid received to investments contributing to reducing electricity system costs. While METSAF already exempts the additional aid granted under its temporary derogation from further decarbonisation investment obligations, the requirement continues to apply to a significant share of the support received.

However, requiring industries facing exceptional electricity costs to reinvest half of their financial relief undermines the framework’s immediate objective of safeguarding competitiveness and preventing carbon leakage. Moreover, European energy-intensive industries already face significant investment requirements to decarbonise their production processes under the Emission Trading System (ETS).

  • Prolong METSAF until at least the end of 2027, and thereafter until electricity prices have stabilised at internationally competitive levels

Short-term extensions would not provide the predictability required to support investment and maintain Europe’s strategic industrial value chains, given the continued uncertainty surrounding the future evolution of electricity prices.

Ultimately, addressing Europe’s competitiveness challenge requires more than temporary relief measures. METSAF is a necessary response to current market conditions, but State aid cannot be a permanent substitute for competitive electricity prices. Europe’s long-term objective must be to deliver an energy system that provides industry with predictable and internationally competitive electricity.

Joint Statement – Energy-Intensive Industries – Competitive EU ETS for Industrial Decarbonisation

A Competitive EU ETS for Industrial Decarbonisation

Key priorities for an ETS that allows industry to invest, decarbonise and remain in Europe

Europe’s energy-intensive industries (EIIs) remain committed to contribute to the transition towards climate neutrality.

EIIs are fundamental for the EU’s industrial economy and values chains in terms of production and employment and are crucial to secure strategic independence in critical industries in Europe. Nevertheless, they are now facing increasing competitive pressure, primarily due to increased energy costs, unfair trading practices, severe global trade disruptions, and higher carbon costs in Europe compared to its international competitors without the ability to recover those additional costs from the products they produce. Deindustrialisation in the EU has already started and is likely to accelerate without dedicated policies.

Investment in decarbonisation requires a credible business case to materialise, with supportive enabling conditions. The EU ETS must therefore support frontrunners and early investment by preserving effective carbon leakage protection, including for small emitters and ensuring enabling conditions for transformation. The ETS framework must allow companies to invest, decarbonise and continue producing in Europe.

While some elements of the Commission’s proposal, such as the adjustment of the ETS trajectory and other flexibility measures, represent a step in the right direction, the adopted version must better reflect industrial realities and provide the predictability needed for long-term investment.

Preserve effective carbon leakage protection through unconditional free allocation

No conditionality should be imposed. Companies make decarbonization investments when enabling and market conditions are there to support them. Forcing such investments without a business case will not succeed. It will only lead to loss of free allocation, the main purpose of which is to protect European production from carbon leakage when international competitors do not face comparable carbon costs. Today, benchmark-based allocation links the level of free allocation directly to performance against the 10% least emitting installations, already encouraging to reduce emissions. Additional conditionality therefore jeopardizes its main purpose, adds complexity and administrative burden without strengthening the incentives already embedded in the system. It also undermines parity between CBAM and ETS, as new conditionality applies only to European companies, and reduces companies’ capacity to invest outside of decarbonisation projects.

Free allocation is not an investment subsidy, but a carbon leakage protection mechanism. Making free allocation conditional on investment would remove carbon leakage protection, precisely where investment cannot yet proceed for reasons beyond companies’ control.

The priority should be to create conditions that enable investment, such as CO2 and energy infrastructure, permitting, technology readiness, financing and market demand, that are not yet in place.

Avoid the triggering of the cross-sectoral correction factor

The EU ETS must avoid the triggering of the cross-sectoral correction factor (CSCF), which undermines carbon leakage protection by reducing free allocation below already top performing benchmark levels across industrial installations.ii A steep reduction in free allocation, as presented in the Commission’s impact assessment, seriously undermines the competitiveness and investment capacity of EU energy-intensive industries at the very moment they are expected to deliver the deepest transformation.

The current balance between free allocation and auctioning is based on outdated, pre-2013, emissions patterns and no longer reflects the respective decarbonisation pathways of the power sector and industry, particularly given the declining share of power-sector emissions. Avoiding the triggering of the CSCF will therefore require, among others, changing the ratio and increasing the buffer between free allocation and auctioning, to ensure adequate allocation for industry, and maintain confidence in the long-term policy and investment framework required for industrial decarbonisation.

Improve the benchmarking methodology to reflect the industry’s real decarbonisation potential

The EU ETS review is a chance to improve the benchmarking methodology to ensure that the ETS benchmark values are technologically achievable and economically viable. For that, it is essential that all the parameters impacting the benchmarks are representative of the decarbonisation transitions of the relevant sectors, taking into account local specificities across the EU.

Deliver an Effective CBAM, including for exports

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) must provide effective carbon leakage protection for entire value chains both in the EU and in third countries’ markets. The phase-out of free allocation for CBAM sectors must be based on a realistic transition pathway, provided that the CBAM is watertight and provides a level playing field between EU and third-country producers not facing comparable carbon costs. This must be accompanied by a permanent solution to preserve the competitiveness of the EU exports and downstream production.

Reinvest ETS Revenues in Industrial Decarbonisation of ETS 1 industry

To date, only 5% of ETS revenues has been channelled back to energy-intensive industries. Auction revenues generated by ETS1 covered installations, including those channelled through funding instruments, should be fully used to support the decarbonisation of existing ETS 1 installation in a technology neutral way, including ongoing and new investments in technologies, materials, processes, and projects that deliver industrial decarbonisation and climate-mitigation solutions deployed in those installations.

Need of markets for renewable and low-carbon products

Dedicated measures are needed to develop lead-markets and strengthen demand for renewable and low-carbon products. Europe’s energy-intensive industries stand ready to work with policymakers to deliver industrial transformation, protect high-quality jobs, and secure Europe’s competitiveness. EU policy must now provide the conditions that allow energy-intensive industries’ investments to happen.

Mikael Staffas outlines his vision and priorities as the new President of Euromines

Mikael Staffas - Euromines President

Mikael Staffas – President, Euromines

As the new President of Euromines, Mikael Staffas shares his vision for the organisation and the future of European mining in this interview. He discusses why Euromines matters now, the opportunities and challenges facing the industry, his priorities for the presidency and his outlook for the mandate ahead.

Why Euromines, why now?

The green and digital transformation will not happen without a steady and reliant supply of raw materials and securing access to metals and minerals has never been more urgent and important for the Union.

This is a soft spot for Europe, with large dependencies on imports for the lion part of Europe’s needs.

Euromines is the voice of the European mining industry, and I am honored and committed to the task of leading the way toward a stronger and more visible domestic mining sector that can contribute to European raw material sovereignty.

His vision for the European mining industry

Europe needs a prosperous and well-accepted European mining industry, that can meet the raw materials demand of Europe and thus contribute to the Union’s strategic autonomy.

The vision for the European mining industry is to unlock Europe’s potential to deliver responsibly extracted metals and minerals needed by our industries in general and for the green and digital transition in particular.

His priorities for the presidency

In my role as President of Euromines, I am looking forward to having constructive dialogues with the political leadership and EU decision-makers, with the aim to resolve the regulatory and administrative bottlenecks that prevent the European mining industry from developing and contributing to the Union’s raw materials supply.

We need legislation and actions that correspond to the overarching political objectives and ambitions and make them feasible.

  • Faster and more predictable permitting
  • Policy coherence
  • Shared commitment and trust building

His outlook for the presidency and the industry

For too long, Europe has made itself dependent on raw materials production taking place elsewhere, without adequate oversight and security of supply.  

Europe should scale up its domestic mining capacity to secure access to metals and minerals in a manner that is sustainable, responsible and transparent in the long term.  

We will continue to build trust between the industry and its stakeholders. 

Joint Letter – Energy-Intensive Industries – Network Charges

Brussels, 27 October 2026

To the attention of Energy Ministers of EU Member States

Dear Ministers,

Energy-intensive industries (EIIs) underpin Europe’s critical and strategic value chains, supplying the materials and products essential to the energy and digital transitions, housing, defence, and the EU’s strategic autonomy.

As these industries accelerate their decarbonisation efforts, access to globally competitive and reliable clean electricity is a fundamental prerequisite for maintaining industrial activity, investment and jobs in Europe.

Yet this objective is increasingly challenged by the rapid rise in network tariffs across the European Union, with many Member States already experiencing significant increases in network charges. This trend is expected to intensify as Europe accelerates its transition to a decarbonised economy. Even under the most optimistic scenarios, an estimated €1.2 trillion will need to be invested in grid modernisation and expansion by 2040.

While well-functioning, optimised and adequately financed grids are indispensable for the energy transition, rising network costs are becoming a structural burden on European industry. As network charges account for a rising share of industrial electricity bills, they further widen the electricity price gap between Europe and competing global regions, undermining the competitiveness, investment capacity and long-term viability of Europe’s energy-intensive industries.

Ahead of the Energy Council meeting on 29 October, our organisations would like to draw your attention to three key priorities regarding the Regulation on future-proofing electricity bills.

1. Explicitly enable streamlined and predictable special tariff regimes for energy-intensive industries

The European legal framework should explicitly allow reduced network charges for vital energy consumers, such as energy-intensive industries and operators of industrial parks.

Special tariff regimes, as envisaged under Article 18(3), are an important instrument to support industrial competitiveness. By lowering electricity costs, special tariff regimes can strengthen the business case for industrial electrification and contribute to the efficient operation of the electricity system.

Particular care should be taken to avoid creating uncertainty regarding the continued application of existing national tariff regimes and to ensure that the effectiveness of future tariff regimes is not weakened by requirements to demonstrate the specific impact of users’ consumption on network costs, as such assessments may prove difficult to implement or assess in practice.

In this regard, the Regulation should explicitly allow Member States and national regulatory authorities to take account of the broader benefits that both flexible and stable industrial demand can bring to the electricity system, including improved grid utilisation, renewable integration and overall system efficiency.

2. Ensure that industrial consumers are recognised for their contribution to the electricity system

Energy-intensive industries must optimise their processes for maximum energy efficiency, which means that providing demand-side flexibility services must remain voluntary and properly incentivised. While such flexibility can provide important benefits where technically and economically feasible, tariff methodologies should recognise both the value of voluntary flexibility and the contribution of stable and predictable industrial demand to efficient grid utilisation and system planning. Tariff methodologies should also remain capable of recognising demonstrable reductions in peak demand and network-capacity requirements resulting from end-use energy-efficiency measures.

In this context, time-of-use tariff elements, incentives for peak demand reduction and locational investment signals should remain voluntary tools at the discretion of national regulatory authorities and be solely applied where appropriate, taking into account the characteristics of their electricity systems, industrial consumers and their decarbonisation pathways. A one-size-fits-all approach would risk undermining industrial competitiveness without necessarily delivering equivalent benefits to the electricity system.

In addition, Member States should remain free to partially cover network costs, as envisaged under Article 18(4), especially for energy intensive industries that cannot offer flexibility for technical or economic reasons.

3. Introduce a cap on network tariffs for energy-intensive industries

We call for the introduction of a cap for energy-intensive industries and operators of industrial parks, drawing inspiration from the existing cap applicable to power producers under Commission Regulation 838/2010. Consistent with limits applying to power generators, the average network tariffs in every Member State should stay below a defined maximum threshold, for instance 1.2 EUR/MWh.

If EU legislation already recognises that significant divergences in network charges for generators risk fragmenting the internal market, the same principle should apply to energy-intensive consumers.

Such a cap would help in providing industry with the predictability required to support investment, electrification and decarbonisation.

We trust that the forthcoming discussions in the Energy Council will provide an opportunity to ensure that the Regulation supports both the energy transition and Europe’s industrial competitiveness.

We thank you in advance for considering our recommendations.

Member Spotlight: LKAB lays the foundation for Gällivare’s future

LKAB lays the foundation for Gällivare’s future

LKAB is now laying the foundation for the new sorting plant at the mine in Malmberget, Gällivare – marking an important milestone in securing the company’s continued operations. The new facility will enable stable production, increased volumes, and the handling of apatite for the future production of rare earth elements and phosphorus.

The current sorting plant was commissioned in 1953 and has long been constrained by both its age and limited space. A new sorting plant is now taking shape, designed and adapted to meet the needs of today and tomorrow.

“LKAB has significant mineral resources and plays a central role in Swedish and European industry. Our strength is not only about where we stand today, but also about our ability to continue developing and making sound decisions that strengthen our operations over time. The new sorting plant is one such decision. It lays the foundation for stable and competitive production far into the future, for LKAB, for Malmberget, and for the continued development of northern Sweden,” says Johan Menckel, President and CEO of LKAB.

LKAB lays the foundation for Gällivare’s future

New sorting plant at the mine in Malmberget, Gällivare

In the sorting process, the ore is crushed, screened, and magnetically separated, a crucial first step before the crude ore is sent for beneficiation and transformed into fines and pellet products. The new plant is being designed for a total capacity of 25 million tonnes of crude ore per year, representing an increase of approximately 7 to 8 million tonnes annually compared with current capacity.

The facility is also being prepared to handle apatite-rich tailings for the future extraction of apatite, which will be used in LKAB’s planned production of phosphorus and rare earth elements in Luleå.

In September 2025, LKAB’s Board decided to invest SEK 6 billion in the construction of the new sorting plant. When it becomes operational in 2028, it will be one of the largest facilities in LKAB’s history. With a volume of 620,000 cubic metres, the building symbolizes the extensive investments being made to secure continued production and develop LKAB’s future operations

Joint Statement – ETS – Fallback Benchmarks

Brussels, 26 October 2026 – On behalf of the undersigned associations (see joint statement attached below), we urgently call on policymakers to ensure that the final agreement on heat and fuel fallback benchmarks for 2026–2030 makes full use of the available flexibility to mitigate reductions in free allocation for all affected sectors, in line with the Commission’s proposal original objective.

A disproportionate reduction in free allocation for a wide range of industries covered by the fallback benchmarks, at a time when high energy and carbon prices are already placing significant pressure on energy-intensive sectors, was acknowledged at the highest political level by the European Commission President ahead of the March European Council. This led to a separate, dedicated proposal to review the ETS Directive.

The Council’s General Approach rightly recognised the urgency of the situation and proposed to complement the Commission’s 88 million additional allowances with approximately 33 million allowances resulting from not meeting the free allocation conditionality to mitigate reductions across both heat and fuel fallback benchmarks.

We therefore call on the co-legislators to follow this approach and reiterate that:

  1. The 33 million unallocated allowances should be used in their entirety to mitigate the reduction of fallback benchmarks. Splitting these allowances across different objectives, as proposed by the European Parliament, will fail to provide meaningful and urgent relief to affected installations.
  2. Equal treatment between sectors facing the same problem must be ensured. The shortcomings of the design and methodology of fallback benchmarks affect most of the sectors covered by fallback benchmarks. While sector-specific benchmarks may be an appropriate solution for certain processes, they are not a viable solution for all sectors, particularly those with too few installations or highly heterogeneous production processes.
  3. Industry needs predictability. Introducing new benchmarks through a delegated act after three months, with unclear criteria and limited consultation period, would create additional uncertainty for investment and production decisions, leaving installations unable to anticipate their future free allocation levels.

With European industry already facing severe competitiveness pressures, the final agreement must deliver the immediate relief it was designed to provide, without further delays or dilution.

Euromines at Sofia Economic Forum VII: Energy Resilience: Nuclear Power Stability and the Vertical Gas Corridor

Sofia Economic Forum VII - Mark Rachovides

Mark Rachovides, President Emeritus, Euromines

Euromines President Emeritus Mark Rachovides joined a panel of government and energy sector representatives at the Sofia Economic Forum VII (Delphi Economic Forum) on 26 October 2026, contributing to discussions on “Energy Resilience: Nuclear Power Stability and the Vertical Gas Corridor.”

The discussion explored the role of nuclear power in maintaining regional grid stability, the challenges posed by extreme weather events, and the importance of the Vertical Gas Corridor in strengthening energy security and diversifying energy supplies across Southeast Europe.

During his contribution, Mark emphasised the strategic importance of Critical Raw Materials in supporting Europe’s energy transition and strengthening its strategic autonomy. He highlighted Europe’s potential to reduce its dependence on external suppliers, while noting that persistent underinvestment and high energy costs continue to undermine the competitiveness of European industry.

Key priorities for advancing Europe's Critical Raw Materials sector

  • Clearer political will is needed to move from ambition to action and address the challenges facing Europe’s raw materials sector.
  • Addressing underinvestment and high energy costs, alongside translating policy statements and legislation into concrete measures, is essential to strengthening Europe’s competitiveness.
  • Greater cooperation and more progressive regulation of energy markets are necessary to support European industry and strengthen energy resilience.
  • An independent, well-resourced Critical Raw Materials Centre, with appropriate governance and strong support from Member States, would be vital to advancing the most important European value chains.

Panellists:

Sofia Economic Forum VII - Mark Rachovides

Joint Letter – Energy-Intensive Industries – ETS Letter to EU Leaders

Dear President Costa,

Dear Presidents and Prime Ministers,

Ahead of the European Council of 15–16 October, we are writing on behalf of Europe’s energy intensive industries with an urgent call: make the EU ETS review a priority for the European Council. This reform, now moving at exceptional speed, is the most consequential legislative initiative of this mandate for Europe’s economy. It will set the cost structure, investment decisions and employment plans of European companies for years to come. If the urgency of restoring industrial competitiveness is a strategic priority, this reform is where that commitment will be tested.

Last February, at the European Industry Summit and at the Alden Biesen retreat, Europe’s leaders agreed that the EU needed to move from diagnosis to delivery, with concrete actions and results in 2026.

Yet, two years after Draghi’s report, the implementation gap remains unresolved. Decisive action is urgently needed to restore competitive energy prices and create the enabling conditions that would make transformative decarbonisation investments possible across all regions of the EU: affordable electricity, CO2 and energy infrastructure, demand, financing, and a functioning Single Market.

The European Council should therefore double down on Competitiveness and inform the strategic decisions of the European Commission in this direction. Multiple issues already on the agenda deserve urgent consideration.

First, proper attention must be given to the Competitiveness envelope in the upcoming negotiations on the MFF 2028-2034. We acknowledge that such negotiations will require difficult choices. Yet, the Competitiveness envelope must be commensurate with the scale of our challenges and capable of supporting industrial investment and transformation.

Then, building on your scrutiny of the recent understandings reached with China, we call upon you to ensure a broader and ambitious strategy to address unfair trade practices and persistent market distortions, and to bring lasting relief for sectors facing unfair competition. To preserve Europe’s industrial base, the EU must use existing trade defence instruments faster and more effectively and develop a new toolkit to address state-driven distortions and new forms of circumvention. None of this can be delivered without a significant increase in staff and resources for the Commission’s trade defence services.

Finally, we urge you to ensure that the EU ETS review is fully aligned with the competitiveness commitments made in Antwerp and Alden Biesen. This requires prioritising the quality of negotiations over speed and giving this reform the scrutiny it deserves, addressing the shortcomings of the European Commission’s proposal and ensuring that any substantive decision rests also in the hands of Heads of State and Government.

Some elements of the Commission’s proposal, such as the adjustment of the ETS trajectory and other flexibility measures, represent a step in the right direction. Yet, Member States need to take a clear stance on carbon leakage measures and ensure that the final agreement reflects industrial realities. Concretely, it is essential to:

– Ensure that unconditional free allocation of allowances remains a protection from carbon leakage risk. Free allocation exists to protect European production from carbon leakage, while competitors face no comparable carbon cost. Making such protection conditional on investment obligations will further exacerbate the competitive asymmetry and must be avoided.

– Avoid a punitive cross-sectoral correction factor (CSCF) and a steep reduction of free allocation. This will require, among others, changing the ratio between free allocation and auctioning. According to the Commission’s own estimates, free allocation could be reduced by up to 70% by 2040 through the CSCF. A steep reduction in free allocation would seriously undermine the competitiveness and investment capacity of energy-intensive industries at the very moment they are expected to deliver the deepest transformation.

– Ensure an effective and watertight CBAM, including a concrete solution on exports while free allocation is being phased out.

Delivering competitive, low-carbon energy, accelerate grids connections and CO₂ infrastructure across all regions of the EU, and develop markets for low CO₂ products where needed are essential prerequisites for any ambitious transformation of industry and for the implementation of the EU ETS. We ask you to assess the current proposal with the above in mind: Europe cannot simultaneously promise to restore the business case for investment and make the conditions for that investment harder to meet.

The leaders of Europe’s energy-intensive industries stand ready to engage with you on these key topics at any time to strengthen the growth potential of our economy, protect European jobs and secure investments. It is now time for EU policies to create the conditions in which those investments can actually take place.

PRESS RELEASE: Strengthening the backbone of Europe: Second wave of strategic projects announced under the CRMA

Brussels, 09 October 2026 – Following today’s announcement of the results for the second call for Strategic Projects under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), Euromines welcomes this key expansion of the EU’s raw materials roadmap. This selection marks a continued and necessary commitment to fostering a resilient, secure, and sustainable supply of the minerals essential for Europe’s green, digital, and defence transitions.

The newly designated strategic projects (list) aim to strengthen Europe’s industrial supply chains by promoting responsible mining, processing and recycling. This second wave of selections reinforces the European Union’s commitment to reducing strategic dependencies and enhancing economic autonomy in an increasingly volatile global landscape.

Euromines congratulates its direct and indirect members whose projects have been selected. These include KGHM Polska Miedź, Hellas Gold, Zinnwald Lithium, Sokli Oy, Lithium de France, Cobre San Rafael and Gruvaktiebolaget Viscaria in the extraction category, as well as Verde Magnesium and Arctial Group Oy in processing. 

“The path to European autonomy is paved with critical minerals. To secure our future, we must match our environmental ambitions with a practical commitment to domestic production and streamlined investment,” commented Rolf Kuby, Euromines Director General.

With the publication of this updated list, Euromines continues to advocate for:

  • Accelerated permitting: A call to Member States and national authorities to streamline and speed up approval procedures.
  • Domestic investment: Policies that actively support investment in European raw material production and extraction technologies.
  • Highest standards: Maintaining the world’s most rigorous environmental and social standards within the industry.
  • Collaborative success: A commitment from all stakeholders to ensure these projects deliver on their promise.

For media enquires, please contact:

Anna Zanetti

zanetti@euromines.be

About Euromines:

Euromines, the European Association of Mining, Metal Ores & Industrial Metals, is the voice of the European metals and minerals mining industry. Our primary goal is to promote responsible industry practices and ensure that mining receives appropriate consideration in EU policymaking. As a collaborative network, Euromines brings together the Secretariat and Members to assess the impact of European and international policies on the industry, shaping unified positions and actions. Representing both large and small companies, as well as their subsidiaries across Europe and beyond, Euromines advocates for a sustainable and competitive mining sector. 

Euromines appoints Peter Richardson to its Executive Committee

Peter Richardson - Euromines Executive Committee member
Peter Richardson - Euromines, Executive Committee member

Euromines welcomes Peter Richardson, Senior Vice President, Business Area Iron Ore at LKAB, to its Executive Committee (EXCOM). Peter was appointed by the Euromines General Assembly on 7 October 2026.

Peter brings more than 30 years of international mining experience to the Executive Committee, with a career spanning Europe, North America and South America. His experience covers the base metals and gold sectors, as well as a broad range of operational, technical and strategic areas across the mining industry.

Peter currently serves as Senior Vice President Iron Ore at LKAB. Before joining LKAB, he held senior leadership positions at Boliden, Lundin Mining and Barrick Gold.

He holds an MSc in Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy from Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, and has extensive experience in health and safety, environmental management and permitting, social performance, operations, project management, exploration, procurement and strategic planning.

Bringing industry experience to Euromines

Peter joins the Executive Committee at an important time for Europe’s mining and raw materials sector. Access to responsibly produced raw materials is increasingly important to Europe’s industrial competitiveness, energy transition and economic resilience.

As Europe works to strengthen its domestic capacity and build more resilient raw materials supply chains, the mining sector faces both significant opportunities and challenges. Ensuring the right conditions for investment, responsible production and innovation will be essential to meeting Europe’s future mineral needs.

Peter’s extensive operational experience and international perspective will contribute to the work of Euromines and its members as the organisation continues to engage with policymakers and stakeholders and advocate for a strong, competitive and sustainable European mining industry.

Euromines looks forward to working with Peter in his new role and welcomes his contribution to the Executive Committee (EXCOM).