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By Emily Ritchey, supply chain policy manager at T&E, and Diego Marin, senior policy officer at the European Environmental Bureau
As the world races to secure the critical minerals needed for the energy and digital transitions, as well as the greater prioritisation of defence, Europe is looking to open new mines on the continent to secure local and resilient supply chains. The Critical Raw Materials Act sets a benchmark of 10% of the EU’s consumption of mined materials to be extracted locally by 2030.
However, on a continent where mining has been declining for decades, Europe’s mining rules are, in some cases, below the global best practice. This is true of its mining waste rules, which have not been updated since 2006.
Mining and quarrying waste constitutes the world's largest waste stream by volume, estimated at around 100 billion tons annually. This massive waste generation stems in part from the declining concentration of valuable metals and minerals in ore, requiring more material to be processed.
When not properly managed, mining waste—including tailings containing heavy metals like arsenic and lead or acid-generating materials—poses substantial risks to human health and ecosystems, representing one of the industry's most significant environmental impacts.
For example, the failure of the Brumadinho dam in Brazil in 2019 caused over 250 deaths and released huge amounts of mining waste into the Paraopeba River. Europe has also suffered several notable mining waste incidents, including those in Baia Mare (Romania), Kolontar (Hungary), and Talvivaara (Finland), which gained significant public attention.
There is reason to be worried, as tailings dam failures have become more frequent and severe over the past few decades due to larger dams, ageing infrastructure and a lack of regulatory oversight.
At the same time, mining waste can also be a valuable resource. The so-called “remining” of tailings can produce economic value from the minerals recovered and reduce the footprint of new and legacy tailings. In Europe, re-mined cobalt could power more than 185,000 EVs.
Despite the serious risks posed, Europe’s mining waste rules, under the EU Extractive Waste Directive, have significant gaps. Legal analysis, commissioned by T&E, shows there is a real risk of fragmentation in the implementation of the directive, with lots left to the interpretation of the Member State. This leads to different levels of protection across different EU countries.
Another major finding is that the best available techniques, such as filtered tailings that remove moisture from waste, making it more accident-proof, are not mandatory and are left at the discretion of the company. These technologies are already being widely used commercially by companies across the world, from AngloAmerican in Canada to Eramet in Gabon. Under the current rules, there is also a lack of clarity over how long a mining company should be held liable and responsible for monitoring after a mine closure.
EU rules are also far behind those of other countries. For example, Brazil, Ecuador and China all have legislation in place which prohibits building tailings dams within a certain distance of a populated area. However, this is not the case in the EU. Touro plans to re-open a copper mine in Galicia, Spain, which would be 20 kilometres east of Santiago de Compostela. The tailings dam would be 81 metres high and would be located on a steep slope above the village of Arinteiro, less than 200 metres away.
These factors make it dangerous and risky to construct a tailings dam so close to a population centre. Why should a mining waste deposit, that would not be allowed elsewhere in the world, be built in Spain, putting lives at risk?
The solution is simple: as the pursuit of mining activities grows, so too must legislation and oversight, to reduce ecological harm and social impacts. To do this, the EU must revise its mining waste rules. Three clear recommendations can bring the Extractive Waste Directive in line with best practice.
Firstly, the Directive must be turned into a new European Extractive and Circular Waste Regulation to ensure harmonised implementation across Member States. The revised Regulation should not only strengthen European rules on waste for new mines, but also integrate rules on re-mining to mitigate the need to extract more primary materials. This is not just about safety and environmental stewardship, but about creating the regulatory space and market for innovative technologies, such as the reprocessing of tailings, to scale in Europe and to drive greater circularity.
Secondly, the legislation must be updated to require companies to use the safest and best available tailings storage and monitoring techniques, such as filtered tailings and dry stacking. This approach would both benefit the environment and reassure local communities that mining operations in their territories pose minimal risk to health and safety, all whilst complementing existing commitments to community consent.
Finally, the revised law should be aligned as much as possible with the Safety First Guidelines. These guidelines, which were written by global mining experts, civil society and academics and have been endorsed by over 150 organisations, explain in detail how tailing sites should be designed, managed and closed and set out key financial and governance provisions that should be put in place.
With EU mining waste rules not up to standard, the European Commission must commit to a revision of the key provisions of the Extractive Waste Directive, as part of the upcoming Circular Economy Act, bringing the Directive in line with global best practice, driving forward resource efficiency and circularity, and enhancing innovation for the continuous development of best available techniques.
This article was first published by EU Observer
