A CRMA material category for raw materials with high strategic importance to EU green, digital, defence, and aerospace technologies.
Strategic raw material is a policy-status flag attached to a material record, not a general claim that a material is valuable. It helps explain why a material may be relevant to battery production, magnets, renewable-energy technologies, defence, aerospace, recycling strategy, or customer evidence requests.
The EU Critical Raw Materials Act defines the category through the CRMA framework and its listed materials. The list/version and source date matter because strategic status is source-bound rather than a permanent scientific property of the substance. The controlling list is listed in Section 1 of Annex I, with relevance to green and digital transitions, defence and aerospace; not every critical raw material is strategic. 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 I, Section 1, shall be considered to be strategic raw materials. Annex I, Section 1 lists: bauxite/alumina/aluminium; bismuth; boron — metallurgy grade; cobalt; copper; gallium; germanium; lithium — battery grade; magnesium metal; manganese — battery grade; graphite — battery grade; nickel — battery grade; platinum group metals; rare earth elements for permanent magnets (Nd, Pr, Tb, Dy, Gd, Sm, and Ce); silicon metal; titanium metal; tungsten.
List-based CRMA source layer; Article 3/4 points to the Annex material list rather than using an ordinary Article 2 “means” definition.
Reference: Article 3(1) / Annex I, 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, CRMA list version, strategic category, product/component link, supplier or facility link, source document, assessment date, and any connection to battery, magnet, recycling, or strategic-project evidence.
Strategic raw material is an evidence-routing flag. It should be linked to the underlying material identity and product/component context so strategic relevance can be connected to sourcing, recycling, recycled-content, and passport evidence without collapsing into generic material importance.