The majority of industrial metals in the TRADIUM range of physical assets are categorised as critical by the European Union. Rising demand and limited supply make critical raw materials attractive physical assets and an important building block for modern portfolio diversification.
The most important facts about critical raw materials
Definitions, lists and physical asset potential
In this article, we explain what exactly is meant by critical raw materials. It should be noted that there is no universally valid, global definition of critical raw materials. Instead, the term is defined regionally by state institutions, usually in the course of drawing up lists of critical raw materials. These classifications usually serve political objectives and prioritisation. This article first presents the definition and list of the European Union and then provides an overview of the central lists and definitions at international level.
CONTENTS
Critical and strategic raw materials in the EU
Critical raw materials
Critical raw materials, often also in English Critical Raw Materials or short CRM, According to the EU definition, raw materials are non-energy raw materials (not fuels) that are of great importance to the economy, but at the same time have a high supply risk. The materials are essential for numerous industrial sectors and innovative technologies, but their availability is mostly limited. Individual supplier countries often dominate the market. Many EU countries are therefore heavily dependent on imports. Since 2020, two potential bottlenecks in the supply chain have been relevant for analysing security of supply: the extraction phase, which includes the extraction of ores and the production of concentrates, and the processing phase, which refers to the separation, refining and chemical and metallurgical processing of raw materials.
Critical raw materials in the EU
(as at: 2023)
Aluminium/bauxite, antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, borates, feldspar, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, hafnium, helium, indium, cobalt, coking coal, copper, light rare earths (cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium), lithium, magnesium, manganese, natural graphite, nickel, niobium, phosphate rock, phosphorus, platinum group metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium), scandium, heavy rare earths (dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, lutetium, terbium, thulium, ytterbium, yttrium), silicon metal, strontium, tantalum, titanium metal, vanadium and tungsten.
Back in 2011, the European Commission published the first modern list of critical raw materials in its current political significance. This comprised 14 raw materials. Since then, the list has been updated and expanded approximately every three years. In 2014 there were already 20 raw materials, followed by 27 in 2017 and then 30 in 2020. The current list from 2023 now contains 34 raw materials (including three raw material groups).
Strategic raw materials
As part of the programme that came into force in May 2024 EU Critical Raw Materials Acts (CRMA), a sub-category „strategic raw materials“ was officially introduced to the list. A total of 17 commodities (including three commodity groups) are now additionally categorised as strategic categorised. While all strategic raw materials are critical per se, they also fulfil additional criteria: They are indispensable for long-term political or technological goals, so the EU aims to achieve targeted security of supply. For the EU, these raw materials are crucial for fifteen key technologies in five strategic sectors: renewable energy, electromobility, energy-intensive industry, digital economy and aerospace/defence.
This also led to a shift in emphasis in the assessment of criticality. Copper and nickel have now been categorised as critical due to their strategic importance, although they do not fully meet the usual criteria for criticality in terms of supply risk. The EU is thus adapting its assessment to changed framework conditions. Which raw materials are considered critical is flexible and depends on geopolitical developments. Technological progress and the safeguarding of modern living standards require forward-looking planning and the safeguarding of future requirements.
(as at: 2024)
This also led to a shift in emphasis in the assessment of criticality. Copper and nickel have now also been categorised as critical due to their strategic importance, although they do not fully meet the usual criteria for criticality in terms of supply risk. The EU is thus adapting its assessment to changed framework conditions. Which raw materials are considered critical is flexible and depends on geopolitical developments. Technological progress and the safeguarding of modern living standards require forward-looking planning and the safeguarding of future requirements.
Lists of critical raw materials at a glance
The most important lists of critical raw materials are listed below.
Australia
Australia has two lists that Critical Minerals List and the shorter Strategic Materials List, with materials whose supply is not currently critically endangered. The Australian lists were first published in 2023 as part of the Critical Minerals Strategy 2023-2030 published and extended in 2024. Currently, 31 raw materials are considered critical and five strategic in the country.
→ View list
China
China does not currently publish an open list of critical raw materials. There are separate export control or resource catalogues (e.g. rare metals, strategic metals), some of which are considered „strategic“. However, these are not directly equivalent to Western list concepts and are not regularly updated as a national list. Most recently, a list of 24 “strategic minerals” was defined in 2016 as part of the National Mineral Resources Plan (2016-2020).
→ View list (Chinese)
EU
The EU Critical Raw Materials List was published for the first time in 2011 and since then has been published approximately every three years in the context of the Study on the Critical Raw Materials for the EU updated. The current EU list of critical raw materials is from 2023 and contains 34 raw materials.
→ View list
India
India has published an official list of critical raw materials for the first time in 2023. The list, published by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, includes 30 minerals and metals.
→ View list
Japan
Japan's first list of critical raw materials was drawn up in 2012 and contained 30 raw materials. IAs part of its economic security strategy, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has extended this to 35 critical minerals in 2023.
→ View list
Canada
Canada has published a list of critical minerals since 2021, which was last expanded to 34 raw materials in 2024.
→ View list
South Africa
The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources published 2025 as part of the Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy South Africa a list of critical raw materials.
→ View list
South Korea
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) published a list of 33 critical minerals in 2023 as part of the „Measures to Secure the Supply of Critical Raw Materials“. Among these, 10 are classified as strategically critical prioritised.
→ View list
USA
→ View list
United Kingdom (UK)
→ View list
Lists of critical raw materials: categorisation and comparison
Since the early 2020s, more and more countries and regions have been drawing up their own lists of critical raw materials alongside the EU. The overarching global trend is clearly recognisable. Decarbonisation, digitalisation and militarisation are leading to more and more countries identifying the same group of minerals as critical or strategic. The lists show numerous similarities:
Publication frequency:
The lists are almost all published every three years, but are continuously updated to reflect geopolitical events.
Categorisation:
The Western lists largely have similar assessment methods (relevance and supply risk). The selection of raw materials is also essentially similar, as they all respond to the requirements of green and digital technologies and the trend towards global rearmament. Key raw materials on almost all lists are: Antimony, bismuth, gallium, germanium, graphite, cobalt, lithium, nickel, niobium, phosphorus, platinum group metals, rare earths, tantalum, vanadium and tungsten.
Gradations:
More and more critical raw materials lists are introducing gradations of criticality. A rough distinction can be made between acute and potential criticality. For example, the EU uses the sub-category strategic raw materials that are required for long-term goals and thus also includes materials in the list of critical raw materials that are not yet critical, strictly speaking. South Korea takes a similar approach and defines raw materials on its list of critical raw materials of particular relevance as strategically critical. Australia separates critical and Strategic raw materials (for important metals without a specific supply risk) in two lists, but follows a similar two-stage approach.
Case study copper
Japan has long categorised copper as one of its critical raw materials, as the country is poor in raw materials and requires copper in an enormous number of applications (from cables to electric motors). Until recently, Western countries did not categorise copper as critical. In the meantime, the global consensus is moving closer to Japan's evaluation. In addition, many critical raw materials can be obtained as by-products during processing, such as antimony, bismuth, gold, iridium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, ruthenium, silver, tellurium and nickel. Copper was added to the list of critical raw materials in the EU and Australia in 2023, with the USA following suit in 2025.
Differences in the lists of critical raw materials result primarily from the respective economic structure and resource base of the respective countries and regions. Deviations arise where countries have different priorities, local securities or political approaches.
Diversification or market power:
More import-dependent countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan and the EU member states are focussing on diversifying supply chains. Lists form the basis for targeted trade agreements and strengthening the domestic extraction of certain raw materials for the purpose of raw material security. Countries that are richer in raw materials, on the other hand, are setting themselves more ambitious goals.
Some national lists therefore also take into account the potential for domestic production of raw materials: Canada and Australia only define a raw material as “critical” if, in addition to a supply risk, there is also an opportunity to produce it domestically in the future. Categorisation as „critical“ not only becomes a marker for supply risks, but also the political foundation for a reorientation as an exporter of a raw material. The USA often directly links a future as an exporter of critical raw materials with the goal of taking over China's market power (link to other blog post).
With the exception of South Africa, African countries do not have formal criticality lists comparable to those of the EU. The continent is a central supplier of many critical raw materials. Instead of analytical assessments of criticality, the focus of the debate on raw material criticality here is primarily on the implementation of domestic policy measures. and economic policy Goals. These include raw material sovereignty (e.g. through export bans on unprocessed raw materials) and the creation of local added value through mandatory processing in the country of origin. Currently, the Raw materials are often mined in Africa but processed in China. Critical raw materials are therefore defined in South Africa as “minerals that are essential for the overall economic development, job creation, industrial advancement and contribution to national security.”
Agriculture:
Agricultural interests are not at the centre of the objectives of the EU Critical Raw Material Act, nor of most lists of critical raw materials. Although phosphate rock and phosphorus are almost always listed as critical, only future technologies and national security are usually emphasised as relevant factors in the evaluation of raw materials. The exception is India, where agriculturally important raw materials such as phosphorus and potassium (potash) have been included on the Critical Raw Materials List with the explicit aim of supplying fertilisers.
Fuels:
While the EU list only includes non-energy raw materials, the USA includes strategically important energy raw materials such as uranium (for nuclear energy).
Publication context:
Lists of critical raw materials serve governments as a strategic management tool. They not only draw attention to economically important materials and materials with an increased supply risk, but also create the basis for targeted political measures. Such a classification can initiate funding programmes for exploration and mining, trigger investments in processing and recycling, establish trade agreements or strategic partnerships and support research initiatives for substitution. Some countries therefore do not publish a stand-alone list of critical raw materials, but include the assessment of the criticality of raw materials directly in specific political strategies.
Japan, for example, does not have a centralised, accessible „official list“ of critical raw materials. Instead, Japan works with sector-based classifications and targeted government extraction and security measures - a highly political and preventative approach that nevertheless clearly defines which raw materials are strategically critical. In addition to the list of the United States Geological Survey, the USA also maintains a list of critical materials from the Department of Energy and one from the Pentagon's Defence Logistics Agency.
Although working groups in the EU were already working on the contents of the first Critical Raw Material List in 2011, the measures of the EU Critical Raw Material Act have finally made the list a clear strategic tool within political agendas.
TRADIUM physical asset portfolio: a strategically important selection of critical raw materials
Just as critical raw materials are increasingly becoming the focus of social, political and economic awareness, they are also attracting increasing attention as physical assets. As the definition criteria of the global lists of critical raw materials show, raw materials are of strategic importance for growth markets (renewable energies, electromobility, energy-intensive industry, digital economy, aerospace) and the security of a country. Their availability is limited.
The attractiveness of these niche metals as a tangible asset is therefore primarily based on a simple market mechanism:
Tight supply with growing demand.
TRADIUM offers a range of selected technology metals, rare earths and precious metals as physical assets. Many of these raw materials are categorised as critical and strategic by the EU.
Critical & strategic: Gallium, germanium, rare earths, platinum group metals.
Critical: Hafnium, antimony and bismuth.
If not on the EU list, all other commodities in the TRADIUM physical asset portfolio can be found on other global lists of critical or strategic raw materials.
For buyers of physical commodities as a tangible asset, the status Critical resp. strategic the opportunity for value appreciation. It signals scarce materials that are difficult to substitute and whose supply is structurally limited, while demand is growing due to future technologies. In such markets, supply bottlenecks or surges in demand can have a disproportionate effect on prices. Many critical raw materials are only created as by-products of the extraction of other metals. Their extraction is hardly scalable as it is linked to the production of the main metals. If these supply limits meet rising demand, significant price movements are possible.
-> The current physical asset portfolio of TRADIUM GmbH
