Europe’s chemical industry is no longer debating whether it is in crisis. That question has already been answered by plant closures, deferred investments, asset write-downs, and the silent relocation of parts of the value chain away from the continent. What is emerging now is something far more structural. The European chemical system is being forced...
For most of modern mining history, success was defined by extraction. The ability to discover deposits, define resources, secure permits, build mines and ship raw outputs into the global marketplace constituted the core economic model. Value creation was measured in tonnes processed, concentrate exported, and operational reliability. Everything beyond the mine gate was somebody else’s...
Every mining cycle creates its own mythology. Each decade produces a metal that captures the public imagination, dominates narratives, drives speculative enthusiasm and reshapes portfolios — at least temporarily. Investors chase excitement. Analysts build valuation models around fashionable demand projections. Governments declare strategic interest. Then the cycle resets, the enthusiasm fades, and attention shifts to...
There is a misconception that continues to circulate in parts of the mining world, including South-East Europe and Serbia. It is the belief that the presence of resources automatically guarantees capital. If the deposit is large enough, if the commodity is fashionable enough, if the geology can sustain an impressive presentation, then financing will naturally...
Mining companies in South-East Europe, and particularly in Serbia, are increasingly confronting a shift they did not expect. For years, success in mining finance was measured almost instinctively in terms of liquidity. The louder the market traded, the more validated a company felt. Toronto and Sydney taught the sector to value momentum, daily volume, volatility...
For decades, the global mining world was structured around a familiar gravitational pull. Early capital was raised in Toronto. Explorers shaped narratives on the TSX-V. Retail investors provided liquidity. Brokers amplified excitement. When projects matured, strategic investors and majors entered the frame. Frankfurt, Stuttgart and European exchanges stood on the margins of this ecosystem. Companies...
For decades, the global mining world was structured around a familiar gravitational pull. Early capital was raised in Toronto. Explorers shaped narratives on the TSX-V. Retail investors provided liquidity. Brokers amplified excitement. When projects matured, strategic investors and majors entered the frame. Frankfurt, Stuttgart and European exchanges stood on the margins of this ecosystem. Companies...
For more than three decades, Europe behaved as if mining were something that happened somewhere else. It chose to outsource risk, outsource geology, outsource environmental impact and outsource political exposure, while importing processed materials and industrial metals embedded in supply chains controlled by others. It believed that economic integration, financial power and technological sophistication would...
Europe often frames its industrial vulnerability as a resource scarcity issue. Political speeches emphasise “access” to lithium, rare earths, nickel, copper or manganese. Strategy papers discuss upstream partnerships, minerals diplomacy and securing ore supply. But the defining constraint of Europe’s industrial future is not whether materials exist in the world. It is whether Europe controls...
Europe’s core industrial economies are increasingly constrained. High and volatile energy prices, dense regulatory frameworks, urban saturation, community resistance to new heavy industrial assets and long political cycles make it progressively harder for Western and Northern European states to host the industrial expansion Europe claims to need. At the same time, the continent demands more...
