CIRAN participates in the 11th Meggen Raw Material Days 2025 Conference in Germany

From the 10th until the 12th of September 2025, CIRAN was invited to participate in the 11th Meggen Raw Material Days 2025 Conference held at the Town hall of Altenhundem, Germany. Organised by the German Professional Association of Geoscientists (BDG), the Academy of Education of the German Professional Association of Geoscientists (DIE!BA), and Sachtleben Bergbau this event received the support of several German and European cooperating organisations and was sponsored by EU-funded project CRM-Geothermal.

The 11th Meggen Raw Material Days 2025 was structured over three days, focusing on Geo-Communication in Exploration and Mining, New Developments in the European and German mining business, and a dedicated lecture to UNFC and the PERC Reporting Standard. The detailed agenda can be downloaded here.

On Wednesday, 10th of September, CIRAN coordinator and INTRAW Secretary General Vitor Correia had the privilege of presenting “Mining in Environmentally Protected Areas: From Public Opposition to Public Support”, addressing a highly specialised audience of mining professionals and raw materials experts. The presentation focused on a critical challenge facing Europe’s critical raw materials strategy: 85% of EU mineral deposits are located within or near environmentally protected areas, creating an apparent conflict between resource security and conservation goals.

Vitor Correia presenting CIRAN at the 11th Meggen Raw Material Days 2025. Images provided by BDG, 2025.

Key insights shared include:

🔹 Traditional approaches relying solely on technical assessments and economic promises have proven insufficient to address legitimate community concerns,

🔹 Community Development Agreements (CDAs) offer a proven legal framework to balance strategic autonomy needs with local interests,

🔹 CDAs create binding commitments between governments, companies, and communities without requiring legislative changes,

🔹 International examples demonstrate measurable success in reducing project delays and enhancing environmental compliance.

The discussion highlighted how Europe can move beyond viewing public acceptance as an obstacle to recognising it as essential foundation for sustainable resource development. CDAs provide a pathway to transform opposition into partnership through genuine benefit-sharing, environmental protection guarantees, and meaningful community participation in decision-making.

This work builds on research conducted in CIRAN, especially in WP5 and WP6, focused on developing policy tools to reconcile environmental protection with critical raw materials access across European contexts. More about this topic can be found in the article by Correia et al., 2024, openly available on the Results page of the CIRAN website.

CIRAN warmly thanks the BDG Berufsverband Deutscher Geowissenschaftler and co-organisers, as well as fellow participants for inviting us and for the engaging discussions on this vital topic for Europe’s sustainable future.