Inge Hofkens
COO Aurubis

Upcoming Sessions

Auditorium
Add to Calendar 2026-05-21 09:30:00 EIT RawMaterials Summit 2026: Europe’s Other Mine: Circularity as Europe’s Competitive Advantage Europe’s circular economy conversation has too often been framed as an environmental imperative. The strategic reality is sharper than that. With cobalt recycling rates at 22%, nickel at 16%, neodymium at just 1% and lithium effectively at zero, Europe is sitting on a significant and largely untapped secondary supply base — one that could meaningfully reduce import dependency, buffer against geopolitical shocks, and anchor value-added processing capacity on European soil. In a global trade environment where access to primary supply is increasingly contested, circularity is not a sustainability add-on — it is a competitive lever, and one where European industry, innovation and regulation are genuinely well-positioned to lead. But unlocking that potential requires more than recycling infrastructure. It demands design-for-recovery commitments from downstream manufacturers, clear market signals, bankable business models, and a regulatory environment that treats secondary materials as a strategic resource rather than a waste management challenge. This session brings together voices from across the value chain — mining, processing, recycling, and industry — to make the case for circularity as strategic depth, and to tackle the enablement question head-on: what will it take for Europe’s circular materials economy to move from ambition to industrial scale? Rue Bara 175, 1070 Bruxelles, Belgium, The Egg, Auditorium RAW MATERIALS http://eitrmsummit.com/eit-rawmaterials-summit-2026/europes-other-mine-circularity-europes-competitive-advantage Europe/Brussels public
Europe’s Other Mine: Circularity as Europe’s Competitive Advantage
Moderated by
Mark Rachovides
President, Carester
COO Aurubis
CEO, Atlantic Copper
+1 speaker
Co-Founder, CIRCULAR REPUBLIC