Terms from EU raw materials law, mining finance and resource reporting that come up in Hercinia’s papers, notes and the Atlas, each explained in a line.
Twelve groups of terms that are often confused, such as critical and strategic or resource and reserve, are set out in full in the paper What the words mean.
- 3TG
- Tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, the metals covered by the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation
- ASM
- Artisanal and small-scale mining: low-tech, often informal mining by individuals or small groups
- Benchmark
- A non-binding reference value, such as the CRMA’s 10%, 40%, 25% and 65% for 2030
- Black mass
- Shredded electrode material from used batteries; hazardous waste in the EU from 9 December 2026
- Book and claim
- Chain of custody model in which certificates are traded apart from the physical material
- By-product
- A material recovered alongside the main product of a mine or plant, such as gallium from alumina refining or cobalt from copper mining
- CAHRAs
- Conflict-affected and high-risk areas: in armed conflict, fragile after one, or with weak or no governance and security and widespread violations of international law, including human rights abuses
- CAM, pCAM
- Cathode active material and its precursor, made from refined nickel, cobalt, manganese or lithium compounds
- Chain of custody
- The record of how material, and claims about it, pass from one owner to the next (ISO 22095)
- Competent Person
- The named professional who signs a public resource or reserve estimate under a CRIRSCO code
- Concentrate
- Ore upgraded at or near the mine by crushing, grinding and separation
- CRIRSCO
- Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards, which aligns PERC, JORC and other codes
- CRMA
- Critical Raw Materials Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1252
- CSDDD
- Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, (EU) 2024/1760, amended by (EU) 2026/470
- Dual-use goods
- Goods with civil and military uses; exporting listed items from the EU needs a licence
- EIA
- Environmental impact assessment under Directive 2011/92/EU
- End-of-waste
- The point at which recovered material legally stops being waste
- Export licence
- A permit, granted case by case, without which a controlled good may not leave the country
- Feasibility study
- Detailed study of the selected development option, sufficient for a decision to build
- FID
- Final investment decision: the owners’ commitment to build
- FPIC
- Free, prior and informed consent: the right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold consent to projects that affect their lands
- HHI
- Herfindahl-Hirschman Index: the sum of squared market shares; higher means more concentrated
- Import reliance
- Net imports as a share of apparent consumption
- IRMA
- Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, an independently audited standard for mines
- JORC Code
- Australasian code for reporting exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves
- LCE
- Lithium carbonate equivalent, the common unit for comparing lithium in different compounds
- Mass balance
- Chain of custody model that tracks claimed material in the accounts rather than physically
- Mineral reserve
- The economically mineable part of a measured or indicated resource; probable or proved
- Mineral resource
- Material with reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction; inferred, indicated or measured
- NI 43-101
- Canadian rule for public disclosure on mineral projects, signed off by a Qualified Person
- OCT
- Overseas country or territory linked to an EU member state, such as Greenland or New Caledonia
- Offtake agreement
- Contract to buy, or for the option to buy, a share of a project’s output over a period
- PERC
- Pan-European Reserves and Resources Reporting Committee, which publishes Europe’s reporting standard
- Pre-feasibility study
- Study that compares development options and selects one; the minimum basis for declaring a reserve
- Prepayment
- Payment in advance for future deliveries of material
- Regulation, directive
- An EU regulation applies directly in every member state; a directive sets a result that each member state reaches through its own law
- RMAP
- Responsible Minerals Assurance Process of the Responsible Minerals Initiative, the most widely used audit for 3TG smelters and refiners
- Royalty
- A right to a share of a mine’s revenue or output
- Single point of contact
- The national authority that coordinates all permits for a critical raw material project
- Strategic Partnership
- A non-binding commitment between the EU and a third country to cooperate on raw materials
- Strategic Project
- Status granted by the Commission under the CRMA, with permitting deadlines and support
- Stream
- Upfront payment for the right to buy a share of future production at a fixed low price or a set percentage of the market price
- Tailings
- Fine waste left after ore is processed, stored in a tailings facility
- Take-or-pay
- Clause obliging a buyer to pay for contracted volumes whether or not it takes them
- UNFC
- United Nations Framework Classification for Resources, required for Strategic Project applications
- Upstream, downstream
- In EU conflict minerals law: from the mine to the smelter or refiner inclusive, and from there to the final product