Journal of Geoscience and Eco Agricultural Studies

Abstract

The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), adopted by the European Union in 2024, has reorganised the regulatory horizon facing third-country and candidate-country suppliers of raw materials destined for European industrial value chains. Mineral-rich states located along the EU's enlargement frontier — including those of the Western Balkans — are now confronted with a dual obligation: aligning their domestic regulatory frameworks with the EU acquis as a precondition of accession, and demonstrating sufficient governance, environmental, and traceability performance to qualify as compliant upstream partners under the CRMA's strategic-supplier expectations. This paper offers a structured macro-environmental diagnostic of one such jurisdiction — North Macedonia — using the PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) framework as the analytical instrument. The diagnostic synthesises evidence drawn from peer-reviewed geochemical and policy literature, official accession monitoring, authoritative trade and production statistics, and primary national legal sources. Results indicate that North Macedonia's mineral endowment and existing concentrate-export profile already articulate the country into European supply chains for lead, zinc, and copper, while ferro-nickel exports have undergone a pronounced contraction in recent reporting periods. However, sectoral readiness for deeper integration is constrained by deficits in environmental enforcement capacity, by the absence of domestic intermediate processing capability, and by an extractive-waste inventory whose remediation needs remain only partially addressed despite documented concentrations of antimony, arsenic, and several companion metals at characterised facilities. The analysis identifies a feasible near-term development trajectory built on two reinforcing pillars — environmental and ESG upgrading of operating concentrate streams, and pilot-scale secondary recovery integrated with mandated remediation at priority sites — while underlining that institutional credibility, rather than mineral prospectivity, is the rate-limiting determinant of progress.