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RESourceEU and the global PGM supply chain: turning ambition into real resilience

A Global Perspective on a European Initiative

The launch of RESourceEU marks an important step in Europe’s effort to secure access to critical raw materials. For the platinum group metals (PGMs) – platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium – the IPA welcomes this renewed attention. However, as global materials with interlinked mining, refining and recycling networks across several continents, PGMs require an approach that recognises their unique, worldwide supply chain. Policies aimed at resilience must strengthen, not fragment, this global system.

1. Build on strength, not isolation

RESourceEU should complement existing international supply structures rather than duplicate or localise them. PGMs are among the most efficiently recycled and transparently traded critical materials worldwide. Moreover, Europe is a leading global supplier of PGM recycling and refining services, and PGM-based technologies. Over-regulation or restrictive sourcing rules could disrupt flows that currently deliver secure, responsible supply to European and global industries.
IPA therefore urges policymakers to base measures on global cooperation, open trade and proportionate regulation, recognising that PGMs are already part of an established and highly responsible value chain.

2. Enable investment and competitiveness

Europe’s ability to benefit from PGMs depends on investment conditions that keep production, refining and recycling economically viable. As RESourceEU develops, it should prioritise:

  • Support efficiency and innovation – Enable adoption of state-of-the-art, low-carbon and digital mining and refining technologies. This includes EU cooperation with South Africa – home to most primary PGM supply – under the Clean Trade and Investment Partnership (CTIP) and Global Gateway initiatives, which already direct funds toward hydrogen infrastructure, logistics and technology transfer to improve PGM mining and mid-stream processing.
  • Competitive energy and finance frameworks that encourage innovation in low-carbon PGM production and hydrogen technologies, including instruments that de-risk clean-energy inputs and catalyze process innovation in mining, smelting and refining.
  • Support for circularity – expanding collection and recycling systems that already achieve among the highest recovery rates of any metal group. PGMs exemplify the Circular Economy Act’s objectives because they can be recycled multiple times, with efficiencies exceeding 95 % in many industrial applications, and around 50 to 60% of the PGMs used in new products already coming from secondary sources.

3. Connect supply, demand and value

PGMs are indispensable to clean mobility, hydrogen, digital technologies and data centres, healthcare and industrial catalysis. RESourceEU can succeed only if it links these demand drivers with supply and innovation. This means treating competitiveness as an outcome of coherent policy – connecting energy, trade, climate and industrial strategies. Value creation, not just cost reduction, must guide this process.

Finally, PGMs are less affected by supply insufficiencies than other critical materials, and the market dynamics (driven by the automotive transition) are supportive of developing innovative new technologies using PGMs.

Conclusion: From ambition to action

The IPA supports the objectives of RESourceEU to strengthen resilience and sustainability in raw-materials policy. Yet to deliver lasting results, Europe must align ambition with the global realities of the PGM industry:

  • Keep markets open and predictable.
  • Invest in efficiency and circularity.
  • Cooperate internationally through strategic partnerships rather than regionalise risk.

PGMs are a global enabler of the clean-energy and digital transitions. Ensuring their sustainable, secure and open supply is not only in Europe’s interest – it is a shared global responsibility.