Europe’s ambition to achieve strategic autonomy in raw materials does not rest on geology alone. It hinges on the continent’s ability to design, scale and industrialise the complex processing technologies that transform mined and recycled feedstock into high-purity, high-value metals. ReSourceEU sets clear quantitative targets for extraction, processing and recycling, but targets themselves do not build plants. Engineering does. And it is the depth, speed and adaptability of engineering that will determine whether Europe’s raw-materials strategy succeeds or stalls.
At the heart of ReSourceEU lies a technical reality: each strategic metal follows a distinct metallurgical pathway, governed by different chemical principles, energy demands and environmental constraints. Lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper, rare earths, silicon, graphite and secondary metals all require tailored flowsheets, specialised equipment and continuous optimisation. The challenge Europe faces is not a lack of scientific knowledge, but a shortage of industrial-scale engineering capacity capable of translating laboratory concepts into reliable, bankable operations.
Processing Technologies as the True Bottleneck of Strategic Autonomy
Europe’s core vulnerability is not the absence of resources, but the limited ability to deploy sophisticated midstream technologies at speed. Engineering firms across the EU are stretched by parallel demands from energy, infrastructure and manufacturing, while strategic-metals processing requires unusually intensive design work. This has elevated the role of near-shore engineering ecosystems, particularly in Southeastern Europe, where countries such as Serbia provide FEED capacity, metallurgical modelling, digitalisation expertise and fabrication support. Increasingly, Europe’s processing bottlenecks are engineering bottlenecks rather than geological ones.
Lithium processing illustrates this challenge most clearly. Europe lacks long operational experience in either hard-rock lithium or brine-based extraction. Its resources range from spodumene deposits in Portugal, to clay-hosted deposits in the Balkans, to geothermal brines in Germany and France. Each requires a fundamentally different flowsheet. Hard-rock lithium involves high-temperature calcination, acid roasting, leaching and crystallisation. Brines rely on adsorption, ion exchange, membranes or solvent extraction. Clay-hosted deposits often require novel leaching technologies still under development. Designing, piloting and optimising these systems places a heavy load on engineering teams, especially when battery-grade purity is the end goal.
Nickel and cobalt processing presents a different but equally demanding picture. Europe’s battery industry depends on converting intermediates such as MHP, MSP or matte into high-purity sulphates. These plants are energy-intensive and highly sensitive to impurity profiles, making crystalliser design, solvent extraction and energy integration critical. Similar challenges arise in manganese refining, where high-purity manganese sulphate is essential for modern cathode chemistries but remains scarce in Europe due to both economic and engineering constraints.
Copper, by contrast, is a mature industry in Europe, yet even here the challenge lies in scaling energy-efficient primary smelting and advanced secondary recycling under tightening environmental rules. Rare-earth processing represents the most complex frontier of all. Multi-stage solvent extraction circuits require extraordinary engineering oversight, advanced automation and deep process expertise. Europe’s ambitions to reduce dependence on external rare-earth processors are constrained not by deposits, but by the limited number of teams capable of designing and commissioning such plants.
Engineering Capacity, Digitalisation and Near-Shoring
Across all these metals, a single theme recurs: adaptability. No processing plant operates on textbook chemistry alone. Feedstock variability, energy prices, logistics constraints and regulatory conditions force continuous flowsheet modification. This demands surplus engineering capacity—teams that can model alternatives, redesign circuits and optimise performance over the plant’s entire life. Europe lacks that surplus internally.
Near-shore engineering ecosystems help fill this gap. Serbia, in particular, combines a strong metallurgical tradition with mechanical design, automation and an unusually advanced IT sector. This allows European developers to distribute engineering tasks efficiently: flowsheet modelling, pilot-rig design, digital twin development, 3D plant layouts and automation logic can be developed near-shore, while final construction and operation remain within EU borders. This model expands, rather than dilutes, Europe’s industrial capability.
Digitalisation is becoming as critical as physical plant design. Modern processing facilities require real-time monitoring, advanced process control, predictive maintenance and digital twins that simulate plant behaviour under changing conditions. In some cases, the engineering of digital systems rivals the complexity of the metallurgical circuits themselves. Rare-earth separation, battery recycling and silicon upgrading all depend on sophisticated control architectures to maintain stability and quality. Serbia’s combination of engineering and software expertise makes it a natural partner in this digital transformation.
From Recycling to Environmental Integration
ReSourceEU also places heavy emphasis on circularity. Battery recycling, magnet recycling and electronic-waste processing are among the most engineering-intensive activities in the raw-materials value chain. While the chemistry is often well understood, integrating mechanical, thermal and hydrometallurgical steps into a stable industrial system is notoriously difficult. Many pilot projects fail during scale-up due to insufficient design integration or inadequate process control. Here again, near-shore engineering capacity can reduce risk by supporting pilot campaigns, data analysis and iterative optimisation before full-scale investment.
Environmental compliance further amplifies the engineering burden. Emissions control, water recycling, tailings management and waste neutralisation shape plant layouts, equipment choices and operating costs from the earliest design stages. Energy integration adds another layer, as many processing plants must operate under variable renewable power supply. Engineering solutions—heat recovery, energy storage, load-shedding algorithms and smart-grid integration—are essential to maintain competitiveness under Europe’s decarbonisation goals.
Engineering as Strategic Capital for Europe
Ultimately, the success of ReSourceEU will not be defined by policy targets or funding announcements alone. It will be defined by Europe’s ability to deploy dozens of complex processing plants across multiple metals, each capable of operating efficiently under volatile conditions. That capability depends on engineering depth.
Engineering is not a peripheral service; it is strategic capital. It determines whether lithium hydroxide plants reach battery-grade purity, whether nickel and cobalt sulphate facilities achieve stable yields, whether rare-earth separation circuits meet quality standards, and whether recycling plants deliver consistent recovery rates. These outcomes are engineering outcomes.
Europe’s EPC sector alone cannot deliver the required volume of work at the pace demanded. Structural constraints—demographics, labour shortages and competing industrial priorities—make that impossible. Integrating near-shore engineering ecosystems, particularly in Serbia, offers a pragmatic solution. It provides scalability, flexibility and continuous optimisation capacity without undermining European industrial sovereignty.
In the end, ReSourceEU’s technical foundations rest on mastery of processing technologies: lithium conversion, nickel and cobalt refining, manganese upgrading, copper smelting and recycling, rare-earth separation, silicon and graphite processing, and advanced recycling. Mastery means more than knowing the chemistry. It means being able to design, build, operate and adapt these systems at industrial scale. Europe’s long-term industrial autonomy will be shaped by how effectively it mobilises engineering power to achieve that goal—and by how well it integrates partners capable of delivering it.