A CRMA policy category for raw materials with high economic importance and supply risk under the EU assessment framework.
Critical raw material status sits on top of material identity. For battery and product-passport work, the important step is to record the substance first, then attach the source-bound CRMA status and the evidence consequences that follow from that status.
The EU Critical Raw Materials Act list is the controlling source for this page. Critical-material status should be tied to the Annex source and list/version, not treated as a universal or permanent label across every jurisdiction or procurement process. The controlling list is listed in Section 1 of Annex II, and critical status is not identical to strategic raw material status. North America critical-minerals context: U.S. sources use designation/list logic under 30 U.S.C. § 1606 and the Federal Register 2022 list; Canada Income Tax Act section 127.49 uses qualifying material and qualifying mineral activity for a tax-credit context. Keep these source layers separate from EU CRMA critical/strategic raw material and EU conflict-minerals definitions.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials
The raw materials, including in unprocessed form, at any stage of processing and when occurring as a by-product of other extraction, processing or recycling processes, listed in Annex II, Section 1, shall be considered to be critical raw materials. Annex II, Section 1 lists: antimony; arsenic; bauxite/alumina/aluminium; baryte; beryllium; bismuth; boron; cobalt; coking coal; copper; feldspar; fluorspar; gallium; germanium; hafnium; helium; heavy rare earth elements; light rare earth elements; lithium; magnesium; manganese; graphite; nickel — battery grade; niobium; phosphate rock; phosphorus; platinum group metals; scandium; silicon metal; strontium; tantalum; titanium metal; tungsten; vanadium.
List-based CRMA source layer; Article 4(1) points to Annex II, Section 1, and Article 4(2) states that an updated list of critical raw materials shall include the strategic raw materials listed in Annex I, Section 1 as well as any other raw material meeting the economic-importance and supply-risk thresholds.
Reference: Article 4(1) / Annex II, Section 1
Reviewed public draft page. Aligns with CRMA raw-material priority policy: source-bound category boundaries, concrete implementation objects, and evidence-focused commentary.
Implementation records should capture material identifier, critical-material status, Annex source, CRMA list version, risk-record link, product/component link, supplier/facility link, assessment date, and whether the same material is also strategic, recycled, or battery-relevant.
Critical raw material is a classification layer that needs to stay connected to material identity, source version, and risk evidence. That separation lets teams link CRMA status to passports, due diligence, sourcing, and recycling without treating every material risk as the same thing.