1. Introduction
Nowadays, technological progress and quality of life rely on access to numerous raw materials, the majority of which are closely linked to clean technologies, e.g., the production of PV panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and energy-efficient lighting. In order to maintain a steady, adequate, and sustainable supply of minerals, the appropriate policies should be implemented at all levels of government administration [1]. This particularly concerns mineral raw materials used in high-tech applications, e.g., electronics, digital technologies, robotics, or defense industry, which are essential for further industrial development [2,3,4,5].
Rapid economic development, in combination with accelerating technological innovations, has resulted in extreme changes in demand for numerous metals and minerals. This, coupled with an overall shift in the raw material markets into Asia (especially to China), has led to growing concerns about the security of their supply in industrialized economies, including the EU, justifying the urgent need for implementation of strategies with regard to mineral raw materials [6,7]. Strategies undertaken by various regions tend to differ in their foci. Whereas Europe opts for a dialogue with resource-rich countries, Japan and the United States have a more hands-on approach in research and development initiatives. However, Australia and China focus on the development of domestic mining activities and on resource protection [7].
Achieving resource security is a key question for the economic development and objectives of the EU climate policy, including the EU Green Deal Communication [8], adopted on 11 December 2019. The European Union aspires to reduce the import dependency of raw materials that are critical for its industries by, among other goals, improving access to and utilization of their existing primary resources and increasing recycling activities [9,10,11,12,13]. Simultaneously, a strong focus has been put on the key elements of sustainable development—environmental, economic, and societal development [14,15].
Different countries have used various terms to define and identify minerals of economic importance, usually called critical or strategic raw materials (e.g., [16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28]). Distinctive lists of critical (or strategic) raw materials have also been created in individual countries, among which the United States pioneered the modern conceptualization of strategic minerals [29,30,31,32]. The latest US report [29,31] included three complementary indicators: the risk of supply disruption, the production growth rate, and the market development rate, which were applied to...
