The European Investment Bank (EIB) has formally entered Europe’s critical gallium supply chain by approving €90 million in financing for Metlen Energy & Metals. This marks the first gallium production project ever financed by the EIB and supports a new investment phase at Metlen’s Aluminium of Greece industrial and commercial complex in Viotia, central Greece. The investment strengthens both bauxite refining and gallium recovery capacity at one of the European Union’s most strategically important aluminium sites.
The Aluminium of Greece complex forms the backbone of Greece’s primary aluminium1 industry and remains one of the very few vertically integrated alumina–aluminium operations still operating within the EU. Processing domestically and regionally sourced bauxite into alumina and primary aluminium, the facility supplies key European industrial, construction, infrastructure, and energy-transition value chains. With EIB backing, the site expands its strategic role into critical raw materials, positioning itself as a cornerstone of future European gallium supply.
Unlike many metals, gallium is not mined directly. It is recovered as a by-product of bauxite refining, making alumina refineries the only viable large-scale source of supply outside countries with specialized recovery infrastructure. Demand for gallium has accelerated sharply due to its essential role in power semiconductors, compound electronics, photovoltaics, advanced radar systems, and high-frequency communications. As global supply chains tighten and export controls reshape trade flows, Europe’s exposure to external suppliers has increased, elevating gallium’s strategic importance.
The €90 million EIB financing supports capital expenditure aimed at upgrading alumina refining circuits and installing dedicated gallium recovery systems within the existing production process. While Metlen has not disclosed final output figures, industry benchmarks suggest that an alumina refinery of this scale can support annual gallium production in the tens of tonnes. Given the relatively small size of the global gallium market, even this level of output represents a meaningful contribution to European supply security.
EIB Policy Shift Toward Critical Raw Materials
The strategic nature of the project was emphasized by EIB Vice-President Yannis Tsakiris, who noted that supporting Metlen enables Europe’s first EIB-financed gallium project and strengthens access to raw materials essential for the green and digital transitions. His statement reflects a broader shift in EIB policy, under which critical raw materials projects are increasingly treated as strategic infrastructure rather than conventional industrial investments.
Metlen’s competitive position is reinforced by the structure of its integrated industrial and energy platform. Alongside metals, the group operates gas-fired power plants as well as solar and wind assets. This integration is particularly important for alumina and aluminium production, where electricity typically accounts for 30–40 percent of operating costs. Access to owned and hedged power generation provides a level of cost stability and margin resilience that few European metallurgical operations can achieve.
From a broader financial perspective, the EIB’s participation goes beyond this single investment. By classifying gallium recovery as eligible for long-tenor policy-bank financing, the transaction establishes a template for similar by-product recovery projects across Europe’s aluminium and zinc refining base. This is significant because Europe’s existing metallurgical infrastructure offers one of the fastest and lowest-risk pathways to secure certain critical raw materials domestically.
Alignment With the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act
The investment aligns closely with the objectives of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, which prioritizes projects that integrate extraction, processing, and recovery within established industrial footprints. Unlike many lithium or rare-earth projects that face lengthy permitting processes and higher execution risk, Metlen’s gallium expansion builds on an operating industrial asset with an experienced workforce, established logistics, and existing environmental approvals. This significantly reduces time-to-market for new European supply.
For Greece, the EIB-backed investment reinforces the Aluminium of Greece complex as a long-term strategic industrial anchor, extending its role from primary aluminium into advanced critical materials. For Europe as a whole, the project demonstrates that strengthening supply security for key metals will increasingly depend on industrial upgrading of existing assets, supported by public finance, rather than on greenfield mining projects alone.
The EIB’s entry into gallium through Metlen signals a pragmatic evolution in Europe’s raw materials strategy, emphasizing speed of execution, industrial integration, and capital alignment. In a global market where control over critical materials is shaped as much by processing capacity and policy decisions as by geology, this project offers a concrete example of how Europe can secure strategic metals within its own industrial perimeter.
