Hercinia
What does Hercinia do?
Hercinia is a Luxembourg company set up to acquire, finance and develop critical raw material deposits in Europe and the plants that process them. It plans to take each material from the deposit to an industrial specification: permits, construction, qualification on customers’ production lines and offtake. More on the platform model.
Where does Hercinia operate?
In Europe. Hercinia plans to take controlling stakes in deposits and in the plants that concentrate, refine and convert them, across materials and countries in Europe. It does not run a site yet; the team is forming in Luxembourg.
Where is Hercinia based?
In Luxembourg. Hercinia S.à r.l. has its registered office at 99, Grand-Rue, L-1661 Luxembourg.
Which raw materials does Hercinia focus on?
Twelve materials in four groups, as an initial perimeter: lithium, graphite, copper and nickel for batteries and electrification; phosphate and potash for agriculture; magnetite, vanadium and titanium for steel and alloys; tungsten, magnesium and boron for defence and manufacturing. Each has its own page under Material focus.
Working with Hercinia
How does Hercinia work with investors?
Hercinia plans to invest against what can be inspected: ore bodies, permits and plants. Each deal will be set up so that public and industrial investors can co-invest, and capital will be committed in stages, as each asset is secured. Talk to us as an investor.
Is Hercinia buying deposits or plants?
Yes, that is the plan. Hercinia wants to hear from owners of deposits, mines and processing plants in Europe who are open to selling a controlling stake. Companies it acquires will keep their names. Talk to us as an owner.
Is Hercinia hiring?
No roles are open right now. The team is forming in Luxembourg, and operational roles will follow once Hercinia runs its first site. Hercinia reads every open application: send your CV and a short letter to careers@hercinia.eu. More under Careers.
Europe’s critical raw materials
How dependent is the EU on China for critical raw materials?
Heavily, and most of all in processing. China holds the largest share of world mining or processing for 22 of the 35 materials in the Atlas. In 2025 it produced about 94% of the world’s battery-grade graphite and 85% of its refined rare earths, and it supplies 98% of the rare earth magnets used in the EU. More in the paper Where Europe’s supply sits.
What are the EU’s 2030 benchmarks for critical raw materials?
The Critical Raw Materials Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1252, sets four for the strategic raw materials: EU capacity should approach or reach 10% of annual EU consumption in extraction, 40% in processing and 25% in recycling, and no single non-EU country should supply more than 65% of any of them. The European Court of Auditors puts EU capacity between 2016 and 2020 at about 8%, 24% and 12%. More in the paper The 2030 gap.
Which critical raw materials does the EU import most?
By value, copper and aluminium: in 2025 the EU spent €17.6bn on copper and €17.6bn on aluminium and bauxite from outside the EU, out of €55.3bn for all critical raw materials and potash. By dependence, imports meet 90% or more of EU demand for 18 of the 35 materials in the Atlas, and 13 are imported entirely. See the Atlas.
When does black mass become hazardous waste in the EU?
On 9 December 2026. Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2025/934 adds hazardous waste codes for black mass and for waste lithium-based batteries; a correction published in the Official Journal on 19 August 2025 moved its date of application from 9 November to 9 December 2026. Hazardous waste may not be exported for recovery to countries outside the OECD. More in the article From 9 December, black mass is hazardous waste.
Atlas and data
What is Europe’s Critical Materials Atlas?
Hercinia’s public record of the 34 critical raw materials in the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act, plus potash: where they come from, where Europe depends most on others and what governments are doing about it. It uses public sources only and is free to reuse. Open the Atlas.
Can I reuse Hercinia’s charts and data?
Yes. Texts, charts and data are free to reuse under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0), with the credit “Hercinia, Europe’s Critical Materials Atlas, CC BY 4.0”. Pictures and the logo are not covered. Everything is in the press kit.
Where do Hercinia’s figures come from?
From public sources only, mainly the European Commission’s 2023 study on critical raw materials, the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, the IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026, the European Court of Auditors and Eurostat. Every figure names its source, and all main sources are listed under Sources.