The Trojarova antimony mine project, owned by Canada-based Military Metals Corp., near Pezinok in Western Slovakia.
Photographer: Milan JaroRace for Critical Minerals Leaves EU Struggling to Keep Up
Amid a hotly contested global race for minerals, a mining project in Slovakia illustrates the EU’s struggle to get its act together.
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.