The project conducts a holistic assessment of the Critical Raw Materials (CRM) potential across Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The analysis is driven by the European Union's urgent need to secure sustainable access to CRMs for its green and digital transitions, a need heightened by current dependencies and limited EU presence in global extraction and processing chains. In response, the EU's Global Gateway strategy promotes strategic partnerships with resource-rich nations. Central Asia, with its vast and diverse mineral wealth, emerges as a region of immense strategic importance for such collaboration. Employing a Resource Nexus framework, this study moves beyond a simple resource inventory to examine the critical interlinkages between mineral potential and regional systems of water, energy, land, and governance. Crucially, this approach directly contributes to the study of transformed landscapes by analyzing how future mining and processing activities will alter local and regional environments, enabling proactive planning for sustainable land use and post-mining rehabilitation. Furthermore, the project informs the field of responsible electronics by mapping the sources of raw materials essential to global supply chains, thereby providing a foundational assessment for improving traceability, ethical sourcing, and environmental stewardship from the point of extraction. The project aims to provide actionable insights to inform mutually beneficial partnerships, supporting the development of sustainable and resilient raw material value chains that align with both Central Asia's developmental stages and the EU's strategic objectives for a secure and diversified supply.
This project relates to the following Focus Areas of UNU-FLORES: Transformed Landscapes, Responsible Electronics.
This project is funded by the EIT RawMaterials.
