For the European Union, the fate of a Cold War-era mine near Bratislava is becoming a litmus test for its ambition to break free from China’s chokehold over critical minerals.
Sitting in a wooded range of hills in Slovakia known as the Little Carpathians, the so-called Trojarova project is where Soviet engineers first discovered a rich seam of antimony in the 1980s. Its owners, Canada-based Military Metals Corp, are pitching the facility as a chance for Europe to secure access to an uncommon metal used in military equipment.
For crucial resources such as antimony, EU nations appear unable put up the money and act, leaving projects such as Trojarova open to being snapped up by rivals. So far, Military Metals hasn’t secured an offtake agreement from the bloc.
As US President Donald Trump prepares for summit talks in Beijing this week — and threatens to raise tariffs on Europe — the project serves to illustrate the dangers of getting left behind in a hotly contested race between superpowers.
China imposed sweeping export controls on most critical minerals and rare earths last year. While the US has aggressively pursued partnerships with resource-rich nations and funded projects all over the world to catch up, Europe has lagged.
“Member states are still reluctant to pool resources for mining and processing projects beyond their borders, even as geoeconomic realities demand it,” said Sabrina Schulz, Germany director at the European Initiative for Energy Security. “Financing remains the central bottleneck.”
The bloc’s formal strategy was articulated in the European Critical Raw Materials Act of 2023, which set targets that included extracting at least 10% of annual consumption of key elements, and processing 40% of them. Those goals spurred action to identify vulnerabilities and to funnel investment to securing supplies of metals crucial for batteries such as lithium.
Global rivals have since pivoted toward resources with military uses such as antimony, gallium and germanium, but Europe has yet to follow suit. Brussels officials don’t have a mandate to pursue similar policies to the US, and lack money, people familiar with the internal deliberations said.
That leaves niche mining projects owned by thinly capitalized companies struggling to take off, not least because of the difficulty for them to raise finance in private markets.
With Europe, budgets are stretched, and many EU countries are unsure on how to engage. For example, in Germany there still isn’t consensus between the economy ministry, chancellery and foreign ministry of what exactly a de-risking strategy in critical minerals actually entails, the people said.
The result is an administrative impasse that leaves European officials worried about getting squeezed, with the feeling in Brussels and in capitals described as a fear of missing out.
Fretting about being left out of any deal Trump might cut with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in their upcoming summit, the bloc last month reached an accord with the US to coordinate on policies to build secure critical minerals supply chains. For Military Metals, that’s a positive development that could result in joint US-EU investment and offtake partnerships for Trojarova.
Frank Hartmann, the official responsible for Asia at the German foreign ministry, told a March 24 event in Berlin that Europe is being too slow and operating on a “too limited scale.”
“What we have to do is long-term strategy, take money and funds into our hands to invest in these critical mineral funds for the next 10 years,” he said on a panel hosted by the German Council on Foreign Relations. “Otherwise, we never escape this dependency trap.”
The Trojarova project, acquired almost two years ago by Military Metals, epitomizes the challenge. The mineshaft there, protruding deep into the hillside, heads toward a murky gloom that seems endless, but a potentially bountiful opportunity might lurk within.
A shiny white metal that is often explored for alongside gold, antimony is largely found in China, Russia and Tajikistan. It’s essential for military applications such as munitions, night vision goggles and infrared sensors, which make up as much as 15% of demand. Other uses encompass fire retardants, and nuclear and renewable energy.
“Antimony is a textbook example of a small-volume mineral with outsized strategic impact,” said Schulz at the EIES. “Europe is almost entirely import-dependent, and supply is highly concentrated.”
She highlighted that China controls almost 80% of processing, pointing to another challenge. The Asian behemoth is pivotal not only as a source of such raw materials, but also as a refining hub. That’s one reason why Military Metals is pitching Trojarova’s riches to investors as a chance for Europe to catch up, with plans to produce ingots that can go direct to defense clients.
Alternatively, refining in Germany and Sweden could assist in smelting, meaning the facility could ultimately help establish an entire supply chain, from mining and processing, according to chief executive officer Scott Eldridge.
The mine, situated near the winemaking town of Pezinok in southwestern Slovakia, was first discovered and developed by the Soviets. When the Iron Curtain fell, the 1.7-km (1-mile) long excavation was abandoned, but it remained one of Europe’s most significant deposits of antimony.
Military Metals is too small a company to scale up the project on its own, and needs partners to invest and help develop an associated refining capacity. If reactivated, it could supply as much as a third of the continent’s annual demand, totaling about 6,000 tons, and be up and running in two or three years.
But the company — which has a market capitalization of less than $30 million — would need substantial funding.
Moreover, critical minerals are prone to wild price swings, and even in markets like lithium, several major projects have stalled as owners sought out government funding.
Whatever the merits of the company’s business case here, Europe’s money and resolve to secure such resources remain lacking. Germany’s own €1 billion ($1.2 billion) raw materials fund has only supported two projects so far and creates more hurdles for companies to qualify than it eliminates.
The EU Commission and member states have signed memorandums with producer countries — Spain agreed one with Brazil last month, for example — but US deals with the same countries are often bigger in funding terms and more ambitious on timelines for operationalizing the plans.
The Trump administration’s agreement with the EU reflects its push for so-called price floors, which guarantee minimum prices for producers that can’t be undercut by Beijing. European countries have been hesitant, but at some point might have little choice but to go along with the US-led initiative.
Meanwhile the region’s momentum to act has essentially taken a backseat to other more urgent crises. By contrast, despite the Trump administration’s recent focus on conflicts such as the Iran war, the president’s team of aides has been busy identifying mineral projects and bidding to secure them.
One American company has already approached Military Metals and asked to see the Trojarova project. Meanwhile just last month, the US government’s investment arm agreed on a $5 million deal to restart another dormant antimony mine in Northern Macedonia.
Thomas Hüser, the chairman of Military Metals, would like to prevent a similar outcome for Trojarova. The German native joined the company this year and was formerly a Glencore Plc manager.
“What we are still lacking is not ambition, but execution,” he said. “Europe’s raw materials strategy remains fragmented, slow, and often disconnected from industrial reality.”
(By Jenny Leonard and Jody Megson)
